It’s the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese calendar and one Olympian decided to run with that. Actually, she snowboarded with that.
According to WCNC-TV, French snowboarder Lucile Lefevre helped Beijing celebrate the lunar new year by wearing an orange-and-black tiger costume during qualifying in the women’s big air event on Monday (2/14). She even made scratching motions with her mittens as she soared off the 155-foot ramp.
The 26-year-old Lefevre had already decided that the 2022 Olympics Winter Games would be her last. After hurting her knee during last week’s slopestyle event, she knew she wouldn’t be trying any tricks at Big Air Shougan. So she found this other way to participate.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought Lucile had big money on the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl. She actually borrowed the tiger suit from Swiss snowboarder Nicolas Huber. You can see what he’s done with it on Instagram. It’s nice that there can be these little moments of lightheartedness in the midst of all that serious competition.
RAWR! 🐯
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 14, 2022
After an injury, French snowboarder Lucile Lefevre decided to have fun and wear a tiger onesie while competing in the big air competition. #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/c6RIUyplZ7