Canada's Mikael Kingsbury celebrates gold as he stands on the podium with Sweden's Filip Gravenfors, left, who took silver and bronze medalist Australia's Matt Graham in the freestyle ski world cup men's dual moguls at Val Saint-Come, Que., on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickTHE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Kingsbury skis to dual moguls gold on home snow in Val Saint-Côme

Mikaël Kingsbury captured the gold medal on Saturday night at the FIS Freestyle World Cup dual moguls event in Val Saint-Côme, Quebec.

This is Kingsbury’s third victory in four World Cup stops in the discipline this season. The 31-year-old Canadian defeated Filip Gravenfors of Sweden in the final, who has 85 World Cup wins — the most ever for a moguls skier. In the small final, Matt Graham of Australia secured the bronze medal.

Kingsbury bounced back from yesterday’s results, which saw him finish 13th in the moguls event.

“I know I shot myself in the foot [yesterday], but I went back home, did amazing work with my team… I was quite quick in my warmups, so I knew I was going to feel good,” Kingsbury said after his Saturday night win.

After capturing silver in the moguls competition, Elliot Vaillancourt was ninth in the dual moguls, followed by fellow Canadian teammate Julien Viel in tenth. Samuel Goodison and Louis-David Chalifoux finished 12th and 15th, respectively.

The moguls and dual moguls World Cups return next week in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.

Vaillancourt skis to moguls silver on home snow in Val Saint-Côme

Team Canada’s Elliot Vaillancourt captured the silver medal on Friday night at the FIS Freestyle World Cup moguls event in Val Saint-Côme, Quebec, securing the lone Canadian hardware not too far from his hometown of Drummondville, Quebec.

The 24-year-old grabbed second place with 82.37 points, only trailing Sweden’s Walter Wallberg, who put up a final score of 84.92. Meanwhile, Filip Gravenfors, also of Sweden, rounded off the podium with a 77.10. 

Louis-David Chalifoux, who grew up skiing at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, finished as the second-best Canadian in seventh place, while Gabriel Dufresne, 27, finished 12th.

Despite having won 18 times on Canadian snow, Mikaël Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Quebec, couldn’t find his way onto the podium on Friday night, finishing the event in 13th place while looking ahead to another opportunity under the lights on Saturday in dual moguls.

In the women’s event, Berkley Brown of Aurora, Ontario, finished as the top Canadian in eighth place, while Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert, 26, finished 12th. Maia Schwinghammer of Saskatoon also qualified for the final, finishing 15th. 

The competitions continue through Saturday with the dual moguls events as Canadians look for more hardware, looking to vault themselves up the overall World Cup standings as the season enters its second half.