Kingsbury on verge of realizing childhood dream
At the wise old age of 10, Mikael Kingsbury heard about the fine art of creative visualization from his dad Robert, a chiropractor in DeuxMontagnes, Que.
So the lad went to work. First, he found a picture of the Olympic rings on the Internet and printed it off in colour. Then, to better portray his exact intention, he wrote the words: “Je vais gagner.” English translation — “I will win.” Every night before drifting off to sleep, Kingsbury stared intently at the rings and visualized himself standing on the top perch of an Olympic podium.
Come Monday, the two-time world moguls champion — and two-time World Cup overall champ — plans to do just that in Russia.
“The night before he left, I went to kiss him good night,” Julie Thibodeau says of her youngest son. “I laid down near him and we looked at the Olympic logo. I said, ‘Do you think the little boy of 10 years old would be proud of you now?’ It was very emotional, because he was becoming an Olympian.”
And not just any Olympian. At 21, Kingsbury roars into Sochi as the cofavourite to win moguls gold alongside fellow Canadian Alex Bilodeau.
Bilodeau, of course, became a household name after winning Canada’s first Olympic gold medal on home snow back in 2010.
Kingsbury, on the other hand, toils in relative anonymity.
“Maybe after the Olympics, I’ll be a little more popular,” he says. “More known. But I don’t really care about that. I just like to ski and try to win some World Cups. If I do good at the Olympics, if I win, we’ll see.”
Most Canadian kids with a love of sports plaster pictures of hockey stars like Sidney Crosby or Roberto Luongo on their bedroom walls. Kingsbury was different, with his inner sanctum a virtual shrine to the world’s top freestyle skiers navigating the bumps and jumps.
“He’s like an encyclopedia of acrobatic skiing,” Julie says.
The bond between mom and son is a tight one, with Kingsbury’s yellow Livestrong bracelet on his wrist partially in honour of Julie’s successful battle with thyroid cancer.
“I told my kids I had a little bump and they have to remove it,” she says. “I told them, ‘I’m a little bit scared, so sometimes I cry.’ But I really thought that was the only thing they had to know for the moment.
“When it was removed and everything was fine, I chose the moment when my kids were happy. I was with them and the weather was nice. And I told Mikael, ‘You know the little bump I had? It was cancer.’ ”
Was being the operative word. “The first moguls competition that Mikael did, when he was around 12, I was in pyjamas under the ski suit,” she says, “because I had my operation the Tuesday, and the Sunday, I was at the hill in pyjamas. I wasn’t able to talk, but I was there.”
At age 18, Kingsbury broke out with eight World Cup podiums — including gold in Calgary and China. He left the 2011 World Freestyle Championships with two medals: One silver, one bronze.
Heading into Sochi, his resume glitters with 35 World Cup medals, including 19 gold, in 47 races.
“Mik is a true lover of the sport,” says Jean-Luc Brassard, who won moguls gold at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. “He loves it to the bone. I’m sure he’s dreaming of freestyle skiing at night ... this guy is not spoiled by sponsors or advertisers or jet-setting or anything like that. He loves skiing. That’s what he loves the best.”