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Simon Dumont Speaks Up On Being the AFP World Champion

Simon Dumont Speaks Up On Being the AFP World Champion

The Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) released its 2009 rankings results last week, naming Simon Dumont and Roz Groenewoud men’s and women’s overall World Champions.

After the release of the results, critisism has spread around the internet. What is the AFP? Who are they to say who is the world champion? Why do we even need this?

To help answer these questions, we talked to the champ himself, Simon Dumont. As the named world champ and a person who has been close to the AFP since its inception, we feel he is as qualified as anyone in the industry to speak about the organization and, frankly, whether we should care or not.

How do you feel being named the World Champion?
I feel pretty good about it. I think it’s great that we have something that actually represents. I’m actually glad for the credit because I think it’s very hard to compete well in all three disciplines. Although I think that for this first year it might not be as credible since the AFP system wasn’t well known. But people now know about it and they’ll be hungry to step up their game and start competing in all disciplines. I know I’ll be ready to defend the title next year.

Do you think the AFP is good for the sport?
I think it’s great for the sport. It’s definitely an extra push helping get the sport into the Olympics; we need some sort of organization out there. I’m backing the AFP to the fullest.

Will the AFP help get the sport into the Olympics?
I talked to some of the people at the AFP while they were getting organized and one of the main selling points was a push to the Olympics. There are already a lot of organizing bodies in skiing and we don’t want them coming in and taking advantage of this part of the sport that we created. They will try and change a lot of things.

The Olympics is a big goal then?
I feel like I’ve accomplished quite a bit in my career and the Olympics is something that has gotten away. We need to keep our roots and I think the AFP will help keep what we created. We started something and we can control it. Let’s do it together and get into the Olympics.

Does being the World Champion set an example for younger competitors to branch out and diversify their disciplines?
I feel that a lot of the guys now are focusing on one aspect of competing. You have the jibbers who do their thing, and a lot of people who specialize in big air or pipe skiing and so on and so forth. Skiing is a broad sport and there is a lot of creativity out there. I just think that by focusing on one event, you’re losing out on skiing, there is a lot more out there.

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