Quebecer Mikaël Kingsbury kicked off the defense of his Olympic title with flying colors by dominating the qualifications for the moguls event on Thursday at the Beijing Games.
Originally from Deux-Montagnes, the reigning Olympic champion and world champion is trying to become the second hard worker to successfully defend his Olympic title. His ex-teammate Alexandre Bilodeau accomplished the feat in 2010 and 2014.
Kingsbury flew through qualifying with a score of 81.15 to advance directly to the final stages of the competition, which will take place on Saturday.
Although he was the only skier to break the 80-point mark, Kingsbury believes it was far from his best run.
“I still have two more difficult jumps to do; I can ski better, he confessed. But for today, with the conditions we had, I’m really satisfied. »
Among the women, Montrealer Justine Dufour-Lapointe qualified for the final by finishing 10th with a total of 71.45 points. She won gold at Sochi in 2014 and silver at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
The other Canadians registered for the competition, Laurent Dumais, Chloé Dufour-Lapointe and Sofiane Gagnon will have to go through the second qualifying session to reach the finals.
First hockey triumph
In hockey, young Sarah Fillier led the charge as the Canadian women’s team got off to a flying start with a 12-1 win over Switzerland.
Fillier scored the first two goals as the Canadians built an 8-0 lead in the first two periods.
The 21-year-old scored her first ever Olympic goal after just 64 seconds.
“It’s a dream come true. I’ve been waiting for this for a very, very long time, exclaimed Fillier. I haven’t seen the game. I had to watch it on replay. »
The Canadians outshot the Swiss 70-15.
The celebrations for the Canadian team were however overshadowed by the loss of Mélodie Daoust, who left the match after being tackled against the ramp by Swiss defender Sarah Forster.
The Canadian team will face the Finns on Saturday.
Women’s hockey is one of the few competitions to take off ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony on Friday at Beijing’s National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest.
In curling, the Canadian mixed doubles team of John Morris and Rachel Homan split the honors in their first two matches in Beijing.
The Canadians first lost 6-4 in the first encounter against Britons Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, before rebounding a few hours later with a 7-6 victory against Norwegians Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten.
The curling competition is held at the Beijing Ice Cube. The venue — first called the Water Cube — was used for swimming and diving events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. The 50-meter pool was emptied and turned into a curling facility in 2019 .