Deux-Montagnes freestyle ace Kingsbury sets moguls record
PARK CITY, UTAH Mikael Kingsbury’s winning run left him at a loss for words.
The freestyle skiing star from Deux-Montagnes won his 12th straight World Cup moguls event and set a record with his 47th career victory.
Kingsbury’s win late Wednesday night pushed him past Americans Hannah Kearney and Donna Weinbrecht for the record.
“I don’t know where to start anymore, it’s been a crazy ride,” said Kingsbury, who has won gold at every World Cup stop he’s competed in since a silver-medal performance in Calgary on Jan. 28, 2017.
“I was having fun today. I felt very confident at the start gate and the fact that I’m beating Hannah Kearney and Donna for the number of wins all time, it’s just unbelievable. There’s no words. These ladies are legends in the sport and to have my name above them now, it’s a big honour for me.”
Kingsbury has already qualified for the Pyeongchang Games, where next month he’ll go for one of the few pieces missing from his resumé — an Olympic gold medal.
Fellow Canadian Alex Bilodeau won back-to-back Olympic gold, at the Sochi Games in 2014 and Vancouver in 2010, while Kingsbury won silver in Sochi.
On Wednesday, Kingsbury beat Japan’s Sho Endo and Bradley Wilson of the United States, whose third-place finish improves his chances of making the Olympic team.
Kingsbury, 25, was coming off a gold-medal run at a World Cup in Calgary five days ago.
“I worked very hard to try to manage my energy this week and I was able to ski my best in the final and super final,” he said.
“It seems like it’s been like that all the competitions this season where I’m able to be clutch at the right moment.”
In the women’s event, Perrine Laffont of France picked up her fourth World Cup victory, beating out Americans Jaelin Kauf and Morgan Schild.
Canada’s Andi Naude was sixth. It was Kauf’s third podium of the season and she had already secured a spot on the Olympic team.