Mikaël Kingsbury’s mission for the second half of the moguls season on the freestyle skiing World Cup circuit? Regain first place in the leaderboard solo.
Because the great contribution of the Quebec stage this season was to relaunch the race. Solo at least.
With his 13e place on Friday, caused by a rare fall at the exit of the first jump, Kingsbury ceded first place in the race for the crystal globe to the Japanese Ikuma Horishima, fourth in this event won by the Swede Walter Wallberg.
Kingsbury now has 340 points, 10 less than the Japanese. Will he look to get his jersey back at the next stage in Waterville, Utah, next Friday?
” 100 % ! Ikuma and I have been trading it since the start of the season. I’m going to go and take it from him,” declared the Quebecer, who nevertheless increased his lead at the top of the general rankings and duels with his victory on Saturday.
The “King of moguls” now has 700 points in the general classification, compared to 542 for Horishima. The Swede Filip Gravenfors, second in duels, follows at 462. In duels, it is another Swede, Rasmus Stegfeldt, 13e Saturday, which trails Kingsbury’s 360 points to 220.
In Utah, Kingsbury will be able to focus more on his skiing. While he greatly appreciates this weekend of competitions at home, it comes with an overload of distractions for him.
“It’s a difficult weekend for me,” admitted the three-time Olympic medalist. There are so many distractions that it’s hard to keep your energies in the right place. Every lift, people want to ride with me and they have a lot of questions. I love it and no one is out of place, but there is constant noise around me. »
As unpleasant as it may be for him, he sometimes has to distance himself.
“I’m not a mean person and I hate saying no to people, but sometimes I have to be selfish. There were a few times today where I asked to go up alone because I thought I was in a nice area. I felt bad telling them I was going up alone! »
Seeing the number of supporters — young and old — who waited for him for long minutes after his victory on Saturday evening, in the intense cold that hit northern Lanaudière this weekend, he does not have to worry about his popularity rating.
“Now is the perfect time to go and give them back all the love I receive,” he said as he left the scribes on site.
Hamelin wants more
The head coach of the national team, Michel Hamelin, draws a rather positive assessment of the two days of competition in Quebec.
“It was a super solid weekend. We had lots of Canadians [dans les dernières rondes] SATURDAY. They were all pretty much eliminated in the first round, that I was a little disappointed, but in close races, by only one or a few points.
“There are also athletes like Berkley Brown (6e) who achieved his best result in the World Cup. In her last four races, she achieved her best result. She’s really on the rise. Maia [Schwinghammer] which still pushes in terms of speed, it’s really good. Elliot [Vaillancourt] and Louis-David [Chalifoux] lost by one point [en duels]…It’s for the future. We build. »
He still remained a little hungry. After all, he arrived in St-Côme with four of his flock in the top-10 in Kingsbury, Julien Viel, Vaillancourt and Chalifoux.
Everyone leaves in the top 10 — Vaillancourt is seventh, Viel, eighth, and Chalifoux, 10e — and Vaillancourt added a second silver medal to his record on Friday, but Hamelin would have liked to see a little more.
“They are no longer development athletes, they are category A athletes in our Canadian system, but they still do not have a lot of experience at this level. They are always “on-off”, but at least it’s still in the final, in the top-8, top-10. I’m happy with that, but I expect in the next few weeks to have a little more. »