Mikaël Kingsbury wins second medal at Alpe d’Huez with bronze in dual moguls
In an all-Canadian small final, Mikaël Kingsbury won the bronze medal in the duels event of the FIS World Cup mogul skiing in Alpe d’Huez, in France.
Toronto’s Louis-David Chalifoux was unable to keep up with the King of Moguls. This fourth place finish still represents the best result of Chalifoux’s career at a World Cup.
This is the fifth World Cup medal this season for Kingsbury, who won gold the day before in the men’s individual event and two other golds in Sweden.
The grand final featured reigning Olympic champion Walter Wallberg who got the better of his Swedish countrymate Rasmus Stegfeldt. It was Wallberg who had previously defeated Kingsbury in the semi-finals.
Kingbury’s three-medal weekend brings his tally to 120 World Cup medals, along with 83 career victories.
READ: Kingsbury wins back-to-back golds at FIS Freestyle World Cup in Sweden
Among the women, the best result of the day in duels went to Maia Schwinghammer, who took eighth place.
The World Cup circuit moves to Bakuriani, Georgia next week.
Mikaël Kingsbury and Elliot Vaillancourt achieve Canadian double podium at Alpe d’Huez World Cup
True to form, Mikaël Kingsbury was on top of the podium on Friday at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in Alpe d’Huez, France, but this time, in a scenario similar to the start of the previous decade, he shared the podium with a teammate, as Elliot Vaillancourt took advantage of the opportunity to win his first career circuit medal .
The “King of Moguls” won the gold medal in the men’s individual mogul ski event, dominating the grand final with 86.55 points. Vaillancourt took the silver medal with his 77.44 points, while Japan’s Ikuma Horishima finished on the third step of the podium with 77.23 points.
“I knew before my descent that Elliot was provisionally in the front row. I just told myself that I had to not make any mistakes to achieve this Canadian double,” explained Kingsbury, visibly very happy with his result.
The third of six skiers to start in the grand final, Vaillancourt remained in the leader’s seat until the descent of his teammate Kingsbury, wearing the yellow bib of the World Cup leader.
Earlier Friday, Kingsbury also dominated the first final with 81.37 points, after taking first place in qualifications on Thursday. Vaillancourt ensured participation in the grand final by taking fourth place in the first final, making a good comeback after his 14th place in qualifying.
It was the 119th podium and 83rd World Cup victory for Kingsbury. Last weekend at the World Cup in Idre Fjäll, Sweden, he swept both moguls events to win two gold medals.
Vaillancourt, 24, was taking part in a World Cup grand final for the fourth time in his career. A junior world champion in the parallel moguls event in 2019, his previous best World Cup result in an individual moguls event was a fifth place in Deer Valley last February.
The parallel moguls event will take place on Saturday in Alpe d’Huez. Kingsbury mentioned that he was confident going into the competition since the track allows him to get a lot of speed, an element he did not need to push hard to ensure his victory today.
