Kingsbury remains hungry for more moguls success
CALGARY He’s won everything there is to win in moguls, yet Mikael Kingsbury still feels driven.
It’s common for athletes who stand on the Olympic podium to take a hiatus the following season or at least skip the first few competitions.
Kingsbury apparently isn’t feeling any mental lull after claiming gold last year in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The 26-year-old from Deux-montagnes, Que., opened his 2018-19 campaign with back-to-back World Cup wins for a head start on what could be his eighth straight Crystal Globe as the season’s overall champion.
“He finished the Olympic year and when we started working together, he was motivated like I’ve never seen a guy motivated,” Canadian coach Michel Hamelin said.
“It was crazy. He just sees the next level all the time. The next level of being fast, of bigger jumps.”
The season leader’s bib seems permanently affixed to Kingsbury. Wearing it keeps his competitive fires stoked.
“I like being chased by other people,” Kingsbury said. “I like wearing that bib. I’ve been wearing it for so long and it just seems right when it’s on me.”
The moguls king is holding court in Calgary, where he has won seven times in his career. Friday’s qualification round precedes Saturday’s finals. The host Canadian team also features 2014 Olympic women’s champion Justine Dufour-lapointe
and her silver-medallist sister Chloe of Montreal.
Sofiane Gagnon of Whistler, Saskatoon’s Maia Schwinghammer and Laurianne Demarais-gilbert of Sainte-adele, Que., join the Dufour-lapointe sisters in women’s qualifying.
Veteran Philippe Marquis of Quebec City will compete for the first time this season.
He reached the men’s final in Pyeongchang skiing on a left knee that was minus an anterior cruciate ligament.
Marquis underwent surgery to replace his ACL within days of his return.
Brendan Kelly of Pemberton, B.C., Quebec City’s Laurent Dumais, Kerrian Chunlaud of Ste-foy, Que., Ryan Portello of Cochrane, Alta., Simon Lemieux and Gabriel Dufresne of Repentigny, Que., Elliot Vaillancourt of Drummondville, Que., Jordan Kober of Penticton, B.C., and Robbie Andison of Oakville, Ont., will also compete in Friday qualifying.
The top 16 advance to Saturday’s final with the top six moving on to the super final.
Women’s qualifying will be held Saturday morning before the elimination rounds.
Kingsbury earned the Lionel Conacher Award as The Canadian Press male athlete of the year for 2018, as well as the Toronto Star’s Lou Marsh Trophy as the country’s top athlete of the year.
He was the first freestyle skier to win those awards.
Kingsbury made moguls look easy in Thursday’s training session with smooth, fast skis and daring acrobatics.
But Kingsbury’s durability as an athlete has also contributed to a trophy case that includes Olympic gold and silver medals, seven world championship medals and a record 52 World Cup victories.
His compact body will require more care over the next quadrennial to the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.