Yves Laroche (spelling La Roche ; born July 6, 1959 in Québec , Québec ) is a former Canadian freestyle skier . He specialized in the discipline aerials (jumping), in which he became vice world champion in 1986. In the World Cup he won the aerials discipline classification twice and ten individual competitions. His younger brothers Dominique , Alain and Philippe were also active as freestyle skis.
Yves was the first of a total of seven children to the architect Guy Laroche (* 1930) and his wife Suzanne (born Grondin, 1931–2017) in Québec . He grew up in a house at the foot of Mont St-Castin in the immediate vicinity of the ski area of the same name in Lac-Beauport . Together with his three younger brothers Dominique , Alain and Philippe , he developed an enthusiasm for freestyle skiing, especially jumping (aerials), which would later make the siblings the spearhead of the so-called " Québec Air Force ". Yves trained his jumping technique in the in-house indoor pool and on the trampoline in the town hall of his hometown, among other places. His hobbies were motocross and later paragliding . His only sister Lucie embarked on a career as a ski racer .
Athletic career
Laroche made his debut in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup in January 1980 jumping in the Pocono Mountains . After his results remained inconspicuous in the first World Cup winter, he improved significantly afterwards. After five placements among the top ten, he achieved his first podium finish in March 1981 with third place on Mont Sainte-Anne . He also won the first of a total of three national championship titles. In the following two years he made it to the podium four more times, but remained without a win. This changed in January 1984 when he won the first competition of the season in Stoneham, not far from his home, and was able to celebrate his first World Cup victory. With three more victories, he secured himself the first win in the aerials discipline. He was also the first jumper to perform a triple somersault with a triple twist. In the coming winter he achieved two victories of the season, but in the standings he fell back to third place. In 1985/86 he found his way back to the top and, thanks to four victories, was again overall winner of Aerials. At the first World Championships in Tignes he only had to admit defeat to his teammate Lloyd Langlois and won the silver medal in his favorite discipline. After the end of the season, he ended his active career.
Further career
During his career as a top athlete, Laroche appeared in various freestyle ski shows, including for Volvo and Marlboro . After retiring, he was still head coach of the Canadian national freestyle team in 1986 after installing a water ramp in Lac-Beauport for training purposes. On December 9, 1989, Laroche had an accident while paragliding in the French Alps. In the vicinity of Tignes he fell from a height of twelve meters against an avalanche protection fence and suffered serious head injuries. He spent two and a half months in a coma before regaining consciousness in a hospital bed in Québec. Due to a one-sided paralysis , he had to relearn both walking and speaking in years of medical rehabilitation .
After Laroche had fought his way back to life, he was Canadian freestyle trainer again from 1992 and prepared the national team for the Olympic Games in Lillehammer , where the aerials discipline was on the program for the first time. His youngest brother Philippe won the silver medal, his former competitor Lloyd Langlois took bronze. He then worked as a private coach and in 1996 took over the Japanese national aerials team, which he supervised until the Olympic Games in Nagano . In 2004 he founded an acrobatic training center in Lac-Beauport, and a year later a foundation for young people. Laroche is the author of an autobiography published in 2015 and gives motivational lectures that incorporate his life experiences before and after his serious accident.
His son Éliott committed suicide in November 2010.
Canada
