INTERVIEW w/ Romain Lebois

"I will give my best as usual"

Interview with Romain Lebois, Men's Freestyle Slalom World #6 and Speed Slalom World #8, on 2014 and his goals for the upcoming skating season…

P.S. What do you think of the evolution of your performances during 2014?

Romain. The evolution of my performances during 2014 was not so good unfortunately. I did good results at the beginning of the year but then I got busy with personal things... But I'm really satisfied with all my performances during the year in battle and speed.

P.S. You were the World #1 for two months in 2014. Do you think it's possible to come back to the TOP in 2015?

Romain. I even didn't expect to come back at the top in 2014, with the very good performances of Sergey Timchenko and Zang Hao. As for coming back to the top in 2015, the judges will decide on competitions when they see my performances, I hope I'll manage to improve my technical tricks and freestyle to do good results.

P.S. Do you plan to compete a lot this year?

Romain. I really don't know if I will, it will all depend on my schedule. I'm planning to do the French, European and World Championships at least, and two or three 3-cones competitions.

P.S. Do you have any regrets from last season?

Romain. I'm so disappointed to have got such bad results at the World Championship, which was held in Paris in front of my nation... Otherwise I don't have any regrets, except for the fact that I could only train outside, but it will probably change in 2015, hopefully. I also regret a lot not to have taken part in the Singaporean event!

P.S. A moment, a run, a skater that you found particularly inspiring in 2014?

Romain. I was really impressed by the Superman trick of Alexandr Timchenko, it has a humorous side in it, but it's still hard to execute it as good as he does. Of course at the European Championship, I was really glad to see Nathan Ménard and Jimmy Fort becoming the new European Champions! This makes me feel that the next French generation is strong.

P.S. What was the best 2014 competition for you?

Romain. The best competition for me was certainly the French Championship. This year it was just AWESOME, everything was good, the atmosphere with the skaters, the weather was pretty good, a pleasant competition place and the city, Bordeaux, was awesome. Lishui was good too, the city is really great and before the competition we got a very hard training camp with everyone, it was insane.

P.S. What are your competition objectives for 2015, in freestyle and speed slalom?

Romain. I will prepare a good synchro Classic run for 2015 and do it well. In battle, I just want to pass all my tricks during competition, and want to join in all the finals and will fight a lot to get there. And finally about speed, I will give my best as usual.

P.S. Your world ranking?

Romain. To stay in the TOP 5/10.

P.S. Free space.

Romain. In this Free space I would like to thank SEBASKATES for having supported me all these years we've spent together! For their big help when I lost my luggage somewhere in Europe (Don't laugh!) I lost my luggage twice last year... That was so bad... Thank you so much Igor for your help, you deserve it. A big thanks to my French Team coach and all the riders of the French Team for their support during competitions! And last but not least, a big thanks to Thierry and Nathan Menard for their support. And thanks to my family of course. Ambroise Nicolao deserves the biggest thanks for skating with me every week during the winter season outside! I hope to see everybody soon to having fun together! See you soon skaters ~