At the age of 26, Team Canada’s Laurent Dumais has announced his retirement from competition. Dumais’s career was filled with great results: a three-time World Cup bronze medallist, 2016 Junior World Champion in the duals event, and 26th at the Beijing 2021 Winter Olympics. Yet, he’s known for some time that he would take off his bib at the end of the season that just concluded.
“This year was a good year to come full circle. I would have liked to continue, but our sport is very hard on the body; there’s a lot of physical impact, you train and travel a lot,” said the athlete whose best finish at the World Championships was a sixth place in the individual event at the 2021 World Championships.
“I’ve had a lot of little injuries over the course of my career, and at this point, all those little injuries are adding up and I’m starting to feel them. So as a result, I’m prioritizing my health above all else.”
His journey to the Beijing 2021 Olympic Winter Games was not a peaceful nor smooth affair. A short year ago, he was diagnosed with a herniated disc, and despite it, still managed to qualify for the big event. “I really had to manage my pain and my training volume in order to qualify for the Games – and then be able to finish the season still capable of walking.”
The Québec City athlete is proud of his record of 16 top-10 finishes in 55 World Cup starts. “So many events have a history for me, but the one that comes to mind immediately is my first podium in Val Saint-Côme.” On January 23, 2016, Laurent Dumais won the bronze medal at the World Cup in Val Saint-Côme, Québec; his teammate Mikaël Kingsbury won the event that day.
A few years later in 2020, Dumais notably added two bronze medals to his record, in the singles event in Tazawako (Japan) and in the parallel event in Shymbulak (Kazakhstan). Last spring, Val Saint-Côme once again earned a place in his heart, as he took part in the last race of his career, where he was crowned Canadian Champion – in the same place where his first major medal was won.
Putting an end to his skiing career doesn’t mean that this young man is resting on his laurels, however. After a two-year break from school, in the next few days he’ll be attending Québec City’s Université de Laval to study electrical engineering.
“I’m looking forward to it. My life will have a different pace,” continued the new “retiree.” Although somewhat apprehensive about returning to the classroom after having spent much of the past few years doing distance learning, Dumais did admit, “I’m excited to start university.”
Even though it’s certain he’ll miss the international mogul skiing community who for him, were more friends than competitors, Laurent Dumais is happy that now, instead of zooming down the nearest slope in search of results, he’ll have more time to play tourist when abroad.
