Laetitia Hubert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laetitia Hubert (born June 23, 1974 in Paris, France) is a French figure skater. She won the French national ladies' singles title several times, and competed in four Winter Olympic Games (1992, 1994, 1998, and 2002). She is a contemporary of French teammate Surya Bonaly.

Hubert began skating at three years old. She finished 26th at her World Championship debut in 1991. At those worlds, she had a rough collision with gold medal favorite Midori Ito of Japan during the short program warmup.

Hubert's improvement showed during the next season (1991-1992), where she won the World Junior title and later placed 2nd (to Surya Bonaly) in the French National Championships. This 2nd place finish earned her a trip to the 1992 Albertville Olympics. At this time she was working on her triple lutz jump, but elected to do a safer triple loop jump during her Olympic short program instead. This easier performance was executed cleanly, unexpectedly putting her in 5th place after the short program. Unfortunately, her nerves were very high under the Olympic pressure. She was the last skater of the evening during the long program. She skated a disastrous performance, dropping her to 12th place overall.

Hubert competed in the World Championships one month later, and skated much better. She had two falls, but was still able to achieve a 6-triple personal best performance that included a triple flip jump and a triple/triple combination. It was enough to bring her up to 3rd place in the free skate, but because she was 5th after the short program, she finished in 4th overall.

Hubert won the 1997 Trophée Lalique (where she edged 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski for first place). She also won the French title in 1998 and 1999.

Her hobbies outside of skating include reading, music, museums, cooking, and traveling.