Mikaël Kingsbury was never worried on Saturday during the parallel moguls event at the Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Deer Valley, Utah. The 30-year-old was dominant in every round en route to 78e gold medal of his career in the World Cup.
Kingsbury had an appointment with the Australian Matt Graham in the grand final. This same Graham had managed to beat the skier from Deux-Montagnes in the singles event two days earlier. This time, Kingsbury was irreproachable in defeating his rival and at the same time climbing to the top step of the podium.
“I feel great! I wanted to take it one round at a time. I suffered a slight wrist injury in a fall in training on Thursday, but the doctors did an amazing job to get me to my best today. It’s great to win here, in Deer Valley in front of my girlfriend and a frenzied crowd,” said Mikaël Kingsbury.
Under the spotlight in Park City, the Quebecer first saw the Swede Albin Holmgren fall during their duel in the round of 16. The scenario repeated itself in the quarter-finals when the Briton William Feneley had to apply the brakes in the middle of the course.
Walter Wallberg, the overall leader in dual moguls, was the opponent of the “King” in the semi-finals. As had been the case since the start of the evening, Kingsbury saw his opponent slow down to avoid a fall and he was able to secure his ticket to the final.
Wallberg eventually got his hands on the bronze medal. Kingsbury’s victory also allowed him to extract the yellow bib of leader in the provisional general classification from Walter Wallberg.
Elliot Vaillancourt was the only other representative of La Belle Province to reach the quarter-finals. He saw his career come to an end when he faced Matt Graham.
Gabriel Dufresne and Louis-David Chalifoux were both stopped in the round of 16 while Kerrian Chunlaud and Julien Viel lost in the first round.
On the women’s side, Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert lost out of the game to Japanese Anri Kawamura.
The gold medal went to the French Perrine Laffont who got the better of the American Jaelin Kauf in the final. Hannah Soar, Kauf’s compatriot, climbed on the third step of the podium.