Kingsbury moves into top spot on World Cup moguls win list
RUKA, FINLAND— Mikael Kingsbury wanted to get the career victories record over with quickly.
He did just that at the opening competition of the season as the 23-yearold from Deux-Montagnes, Que., won the freestyle skiing dual moguls Saturday to become the all-time leader in World Cup wins with 29.
“It just felt amazing,” Kingsbury said on a conference call. “I woke up this morning and I felt confident.
“I qualified first. I knew today was a good day to make it happen.”
Kingsbury, the reigning World Cup moguls and overall freestyle champion from Deux-Montagnes, Que., outpointed Benjamin Cavet of France 20-15 in the final for his fourth victory on the Ruka hill in northeastern Finland.
He previously shared the career wins record with Edgar Grospiron of France, who amassed 28 wins from 1988-’95. Kingsbury came short in his first attempt at the record in the final competition last season, when he fell at a meet in France with Grospiron in attendance.
It made for an anxious off-season as he waited for his next shot.
“I thought about it all summer,” he said. “It was a source of motivation in training. I’m happy to get it out of the way in the first race. Now I will have less pressure on my shoulders.”
Grospiron wasn’t at the Ruka com- petition, but Kingsbury hopes to talk to him in the next few days. The Frenchman has been supportive of the Canadian’s quest for the record.
Kingsbury is a phenomenon in moguls skiing. He was FIS freestyle rookie of the year in 2010 and has dominated the moguls circuit the last four years.
With at least three or four more peak years left in him, he has passed legends like Canadians Jean-Luc Brassard — his boyhood idol — and Alex Bilodeau as well as Grospiron.
How many wins he’ll end up with is anyone’s guess.
“Beating a legend like Edgar and being first in my sport is something I never thought I could do,” he said. “Now I want to push the record as far as a I can so that some day it will be unbeatable.”
One prize lacking on his resume is Olympic gold. In 2014 in Sochi, the since-retired Bilodeau edged him out to claim a second straight moguls gold. The silver medal was nice, but Kingsbury wants another shot at gold at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Winning Olympic gold is the main goal of my career,” he said.
He’s looking forward to returning home for meets Jan. 23 in Val StCome, Que., and Jan. 30 in Calgary.
Japanese teen Ikuma Horishima was third in Ruka, coming from behind to beat 2014 champ Philippe Marquis of Quebec City, for pace and clean jumps.
In a surprising women’s final matchup, Mikaela Matthews of the United States took the top honour from Regina Rakhimova of Russia.
The favourite, Montreal native Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, had to be content with third. She took bronze after winning the small final against Hedvig Wessel of Norway.