Canada’s mogul stars look dim at worlds
Canada is accustomed to touching down at the Olympic moguls competition as the overwhelming favourite, much like Norway in cross-country skiing, Germany in luge and the Netherlands in longtrack speedskating.
But Canada’s routine domination of the bumps and jumps is in doubt after a shaky performance at the world championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, an event some see as a dress rehearsal for the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
On Thursday, no Canadians came near the podium in dual moguls, a head-to-head format not included on the Olympic menu.
Widely considered the best mogul skier on the planet, Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury lost in the round of 16 to Japan’s Ikuma Horishima. Philippe Marquis was knocked out in the same round. On the women’s side, Olympic champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe, her sister Chloe and Andi Naude all failed to advance beyond the round of 16. Let the soul-searching begin. “I was a bit tired,” said Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who won bronze in Wednesday’s single moguls competition but settled for 14th on Thursday. “My legs burned a bit, but I felt good all day. Now, I feel so much more ready to train even harder for next year. I feel like I can learn from all the challenges. I need to improve skiing and my jumps and have a higher degree of difficulty to get higher scores. It makes it even more clear what I have to work on this summer.”
Kingsbury, the World Cup overall title winner, said he doesn’t want to read too much into the results this week given the spring temperatures and soft snow conditions in Spain.
“(Horishima) was the master of this course,” said Kingsbury, who finished third in single moguls. “It’s his type of snow. I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but it does bring the pack together.”