Vancouver, February 4, 2023 – After finishing second at the Deer Valley World Cup on Thursday, just behind Australia’s Matt Graham, Mikaël Kingsbury (Deux-Montagnes, QC) had the opportunity to avenge his loss on Saturday as the two skiers faced off in the final of the dual moguls event.
The “King of Moguls” performed flawlessly throughout the day and into the final, earning the top spot on the podium for the 78th time in his World Cup career.
“I feel great! I wanted to take it one round at a time. I injured my wrist slightly on Thursday when I fell during a training run, but the doctors did incredible work to make sure I’d be in top shape today. It feels fantastic to win here, at Deer Valley, in front of my girlfriend and this awesome crowd,” exclaimed Kingsbury, following his win.
Today’s win moves Kingsbury into the top spot in the provisional World Cup standings for dual moguls, ahead of Sweden’s Walter Wallberg, whom Kingsbury defeated in today’s semi-final. Wallberg finished the race in third place.
“I knew I had to win gold to move into first place in the standings. With a second-place finish today, I wouldn’t have gotten the leader’s bib. That gave me a little extra nudge to really go for the win,” he added.
Thanks to Thursday’s silver medal, Kingsbury secured this year’s Crystal Globe for singles moguls—the 22nd of his career.
“This is huge! Two of my toughest opponents were unable to obtain good rankings on Thursday, and that allowed me to secure the Crystal Globe pretty quickly. It’s great news to be able to add another globe to my collection.”
To earn his spot in today’s final, Kingsbury began the day with a first-round bye, before defeating James Crozet of France in the next round. He then dashed the medal hopes of Sweden’s Albin Holmgren in the round of sixteen before repeating the feat against Britain’s William Feneley in the quarter-final.
Elliot Vaillancourt (Drummondville, QC) also participated in this evening’s qualifying heats. His race to the podium was halted by silver medallist Matt Graham in the quarter-final.
Gabriel Dufresne (Joliette, QC), Louis-David Chalifoux (Quebec City, QC) and Brenden Kelly (Pemberton, BC) were all eliminated in the round of 32.
Kerrian Chunlaud (Quebec City, QC) and Julien Viel (Lévis, QC) both lost their first races of the day.
In the women’s competition, Maia Schwinghammer (Saskatoon, SK) had the best Canadian result. She lost her quarter-final race to Jaelin Kauf of the USA, who later won silver.
Earlier, Schwinghammer had defeated Katharine Ramsauer of Austria and Yuki Kajiwara of Japan to advance to the quarter-final.
Perrine Laffont of France captured the top honours in the final, while the bronze medal went to Hannah Soar of the USA.
Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert (Sainte-Adèle, QC) and Berkley Brown (Aurora, ON) were eliminated in the round of 32.
