‘He never lets his head get bigger’

Not one to read his own press clippings, Kingsbury is doggedly trying to improve even if he is already better than all his competitors (not that you’ll ever catch him saying that.)

In September, Kingsbury nailed a cork 1440 — a partial backflip with four twists — during a training session in Australia.

No one has ever landed the trick in World Cup moguls competition.

“It was exciting to see him stressed,” Marquis says. “He’s been so good for so long and from a very young age pushing the limits. So I haven’t seen him very stressed many times.

“So that was cool to witness that a guy like that could be stressed and freaked out. It shows how human he is.”

While he prides himself on living in the moment, Kingsbury is a big believer in creative visualization. At age 10, he found a picture of the Olympic rings on the Internet and printed it off in colour. Then, he wrote the words: “Je vais gagner.”

English translation — “I will win.”

That picture still adorns the ceiling in his childhood bedroom, and he still stares at it before falling asleep when he is at home with his parents.

“The rings are still there,” he says. “They haven’t moved. Until it happens, I’ll just leave them there forever.”

In spite of his gaudy resumé, Kingsbury comes across as just one of the guys with little in the way of ego.

Confident? Yes? Cocky? Not a chance.

“He never lets his head get bigger than he actually is,” Marquis says. “He’s down to earth which is fantastic for his teammates, because it would suck for us to spend time with him if he was the opposite of that.

“We have good times all around. He’s such a great little guy.”