August 24, 2002: There is a picture and article on page 33 of the
October 2002 (current) issue of IFS Magazine.
Here's an excerpt:
"Now Hubert would like to begin working with youngsters. 'But I need to pass an
exam next February in order to become a physical education teacher,' she
explained. 'Only 50 places are available, but 1500 people are applying.'
She and [Cedric] Holbecq (her husband) are also considering relocating
to the US."
March 29, 2002: There is a new
article here (in french) about Laetitia's retirement from eligible skating.
Here is the approximate English translation, with the help of Babelfish:
Figure Skating
Hubert: " I stop "
After having spent ten years on the highest level, Laetitia Hubert
(Paris Olympic Club), hangs up her skates. Her husband Cedric,
and her professional reconversion, are from now on the two
priorities of her new life.
Laetitia Hubert first laced up her skates at 3 years old. Four Olympic
Games later and after having gained two
national crowns, a world junior title and a
Trophy Lalique title, the Parisian hangs up. To 28 years and
after the Olympics (15th place) and Worlds (12th place) disappointing
ones, she throws a lucid glance on her
career. Today, her priorities are
elsewhere. Married for soon two years,
Laetitia has wanted from now on to be
devoted to Cedric, her husband, who has
just overcome a very serious disease.
You put a term at your career at the end of this season. What justified your
decision? Laetitia Hubert. I quite
simply want to pass to other things. I no longer have the
motivation necessary to continue, so I stop. The decision was not easy to make, because
it is a large upheaval in my life, but I
thought of it since the beginning of the
season. Now, I must relearn to live,
because during more than ten years, all
my life was conditioned by ice-skating.
Today, which are your priorities?I want to devote myself fully to
Cedric, my husband. He was seriously sick this winter.
From now on, it is drawn from business, but I want to be at his sides to take care of him.
Do you think of becoming professional? I still want to skate, but to turn
professional would mean to often leave to the United States and I do not want
to leave any more too a long time far from Cedric and from at home.
Did you think of your reconversion? Of course. I am passing an
assessment of
competences by the means of the ministry for Youth and the Sports. I think
that I will have finished in June and, at this time there, I will make a decision
as for my orientation. I would like to invest me in the mental preparation of the
high level sportsmen or to occupy me of the coaching in company.
Won't the public thus re-examine you more on shoes? If, a little,
because I
always want to skate. And then, it is difficult to leave a discipline which one
practised during so many years. Then, I intend to make some official
receptions and then I leave around the first of April for a little more than one
month, with the team of France.
Lastly, which glance do you relate to your last season? I prepared this
season
since May 2001 and, in spite of the investment and all achieved work, I did not
have the anticipated results. Admittedly, my performances were not
particularly good, but they were not catastrophic either. So today, I stop
while being happy. And even if I am far from to have been a very large
champion, I do not regret anything.
Remarks collected by Viviane de Flers
the Parisian one Wednesday March 27 2002
There is a short article about Laetitia in the Jan/Feb 2001 issue of International Figure Skating magazine
on page 33. Among other things, it says that "At 26, in the eyes of the
Federation Fracais des Sport de Glace, she remains a good shot on the international scene...."
There is an article about Laetitia in the September/October 1999
issue of IFS Magazine, which you can read here. The article mentions that she's been in training camps most of
the summer; it also quotes her as saying that her new short
program will be a jazz number and that her free skate will
be to Oriental music.
After qualifying at the European Championships in Prague, the
two-time French women's champion was forced to withdraw due
to gastroenteritis. Then, in early March, the FFSG asked her
to take a fitness test for Worlds. When she couldn't perform
the four required triple jumps, the federation dropped her
from the team. (Hubert finished fourth at Worlds in 1998.)
Then there was her choice of music, which was widely criticized,
despite several program changes. "When you like to do something,
sometimes it seems that some people do not like it," said the 25-year-old skater.
And, finally, Hubert was forced to change coaches, leaving
Jean-Roland Racle to begin training in Champigny with Annick
Gailhaguet. But she put her foot down on one thing: she
refused to leave her club, Paris Olympique.
Hubert said her goals for next season are to win the French
Championships and to perform well at international events.
Laetitia Hubert made her debut to television viewers with her
stellar short program during the 1992 Olympic Winter Games.
She became "Little Darling of Albertville" with a surprising
fifth-place finish in that phase of the competition. But 48
hours later, the long program would turn into a nightmare.
"I fell at least five times during my performance," she acknowledged
recently. "But it might have been six or seven in total."
She dropped to 12th place in the final rankings.
A few weeks later, she was to get her best-ever result in a
World Championship with a fourth-place finish at Worlds in
Oakland. "Everything in my life was settled, organized. I
could not say a single word," she said. "I was then quite
young. I was treated like a robot."
Over the next few years, Hubert struggled and dropped from the
world stage. But she rebounded with a sixth-place finish at
1997 Worlds in Lausanne.
"With Jean-Roland Racle, we started to work on the basics of
my technique and we did not focus on results," Hubert said.
Moreover, she added neuro-linguistic programming to her training.
"When I enter the ice rink, I have to concentrate myself on
my legs," she said. "I have to skate in my body and in my
head. This brings me a sensation of well-being.
Her new regiment worked well enough last November for her to
defeat reigning World Champion Tara Lipinski and win Trophee
Lalique. "The new mental condition I have built added to
maturity and the originality of my programs might have done
the difference," Hubert now 23, said.
Despite all the injuries and adversity she has faced, Hubert
said she has never wanted to stop her skating career. "I
love to skate," she said. "For me, it is a matter of health.
There would be like a missing link in my life if I'd stopped skating."
Like all French top-class skaters, Hubert has suffered from
the financial problems the French federation is facing. "I do
not think we will recover everything the French body owes us,
especially the prize monies," she said. "But for this Olympic
season, everything I asked for (in individual subsidies) was
granted. The crisis of the (Federation Francaise des Sports
de Glace) did not affect my preperation."
Hubert said she will continue to skate after the Olympic Games.
She is not sure at this point if she will turn professional.
"I will go where I can accomplish myself the best," she said.
Hubert won her first French national title in December.
She also plans to continue her studies towards becoming a
physical education teacher.
