Mikaël Kingsbury flew through the moguls event in parallel with the World Cup in Waterville, New Hampshire. If his third place in singles raised many eyebrows the day before, the freestyle skier was superior across the board on Saturday and tied the record for the most World Cup victories for a male athlete.
Kingsbury first emerged victorious in his duels against his teammate Gabriel Dufresne, the Japanese Goshin Fujiki and the American Landon Wendler.
In the semi-final, he was better and faster than the Swede Filip Gravenfors, known for his speed, then had the last word against the Japanese Ikuma Horishima in the grand final.
Horishima, who won singles gold on Friday, tried to keep up with the Canadian’s strong pace only to go off the track after the first jump. Kingsbury headed towards the 86e victory of his career and at the same time joined the Swede Ingemar Stenmark, who had done the same in alpine skiing.
This season, the athlete from Deux-Montagnes reached the podium in each of the five parallel events, four times on the top step. Swede Walter Wallberg got the better of his compatriot Filip Gravenfors in the small final to win the bronze medal.
Julien Viel was the other Canadian representative to reach the round of 16, where he was defeated by Australian Cooper Woods. He thus finished at 11e rank. Gabriel Dufresne, Elliot Vaillancourt and Louis-David Chalifoux were all eliminated in their second duel and ranked 25e28e and 32e.
Among the women, the Australian Jakara Anthony triumphed. Americans Jaelin Kauf and Olivia Giaccio won silver and bronze respectively.
Maia Schwinghammer was the best Canadian, in eighth position.
Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert was limited to a descent in the women’s table. She lost to Kazakh Anastassiya Gorodko and is in 20e place.
The next World Cup will also be presented in the United States. This time, the athletes meet in Deer Valley, Utah, in a week.
With The Canadian Press