Laurence St-Germain of Quebec City, Quebec shocked the international skiing world on Saturday with a gold medal in the women’s slalom at the 2023 World Alpine Skiing Championships in Meribel, France. For St-Germain, the gold medal was stunning because she had never before won a World Cup medal and all of a sudden is a world champion.
St-Germain posted a winning time of 1:43.15. Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the silver medal with a time of 1:43.72. Lena Duerr of Germany won the bronze medal with a time of 1:43.84. St-Germain earned a medal by 0.71 seconds over Mina Fuerst Holtmann of Norway, who had a fourth place time of 1:43.86. For Shiffrin, it was her 14th medal at the World Alpine Skiing Championships.
The gold medal for St-Germain was Canada’s fourth medal at the 2023 World Alpine Skiing Championships. That was the most medals ever for Canada in the history of the World Alpine Skiing Championships. Canada’s other three medals came from James Crawford of Toronto, Ontario (gold medal in the men’s super giant slalom), Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, British Columbia (bronze medal in the men’s downhill) and in the mixed team parallel event (bronze). The Canadians involved in the mixed team parallel event were Valerie Grenier of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Britt Richardson of Canmore, Alberta, and Jeff and Erik Read of Calgary, Alberta. The gold medal for St-Germain will give her confidence as she prepares for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo.
