Winter sports: Win streak over for Kingsbury
MONT TREMBLANT, QUE.— All eyes were on Canadians Mikael Kingbsury and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe in the final moguls World Cup before the Pyeongchang Olympics. By the time they were done, Kingsbury had lost his incredible winning streak, placing second for the first time in almost two seasons, and a family dream — for three sisters to compete at the Olympics together again — was over.
But success to athletes sometimes looks a little different than people might expect, so both Kingsbury and Dufour-Lapointe were smiling and feeling pretty good afterward.
For Kingsbury, the history-making winning streak, which stays at 13, was “cool” — but his thoughts are focused on his far bigger goal in South Korea next month.
“My body couldn’t be feeling better leading into the Games; I’ve won six out of seven events (this season) and my worst result is second place, I don’t know how I could be disappointed,” Kingsbury said after his run came up just short of the gold-medal effort of Japan’s Ikuma Horishima.
Maxime, the eldest Dufour-Lapointe, needed a podium finish to have a shot at joining her sisters Justine and Chloe — who won Olympic gold and silver at the 2014 Sochi Games — but finished well down in the field.
“I’m feeling good. I’m at peace with my performance and that way I skied,” she said, after her sister Justine won gold and fellow Canadian Andi Naude took silver.
“I pushed my limits in every direction and even more, coming back from injury. So, sometimes, the challenges aren’t the ones that everyone sees but I know what they were for me . . . I grew in these last four years and nothing can take that away from me and that makes me feel like a champion nonetheless.”
Kripps, Humphries win overall titles:
Canada’s Justin Kripps won his first overall World Cup title after placing third in the final two-man bobsled race of the season in Koenigssee, Germany, while compatriot Kaillie Humphries claimed her fourth women’s title on Saturday.
Francesco Friedrich, pushed by Thorsten Margis, was fastest in both runs of the men’s race for a combined time of 1 minute, 38.97 seconds.Kripps, pushed by Alexander Kopacz, was third, 0.44 behind.
After eight races, The Summerland, B.C., resident finished with 1,631 points, ahead of defending title holder Friedrich on 1,504.
Germany’s Stephanie Schneider won the women’s race later Saturday, clocking a combined time of 1:41.35 with Annika Drazek’s help to beat Humphries of Calgary by 0.29.
Humphries, who was pushed by former track athlete Phylicia George of Toronto, finished with 1,631 points after eight races, 40 ahead of Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States, who was third in Koenigssee with Lauren Gibbs.