SAINT CÔME Despite missing out on the leader's yellow jersey in the individual competition, Mikaël Kingsbury believes he is in a great position for the end of the season after making a great recovery on Saturday with victory in the moguls alongside the season-opening World Championships in Val Saint-Côme.
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After a fall in Friday's individual competition that dropped him to 13th place, Kingsbury celebrated his 85th career victory on Saturday by winning the last three hard-fought duels.
“I’m glad I did it,” he concluded. It's not the kind of track that I can excel at. The slope is suitable for tall skiers. Despite all the distractions, it was a tough weekend where it was difficult to use my energy properly. It was easy to get out of my zone.”
The King of Moguls' goal for the next two stages of the World Championship, taking place on January 26th and 27th in Waterville, New Hampshire, is clear. Two more stops are planned in Deer Valley the following weekend before the circuit ends in Kazakhstan and Italy in March.
“I want to take back the leader’s yellow jersey from Ikuma [Horishima].”
Kingsbury is ten points behind the Japanese, who was excluded from the podium at the two events in Val Saint-Côme.
A coach who is not surprised
Michel Hamelin wasn't surprised by Kingsbury's comeback. “It's rare for Mik to go down and I had no doubt he would come back,” said the head coach of the Canadian team. After his fall, he immediately got back up to complete the descent. He wanted to collect as many points as possible so that he wouldn't miss a point in the race for the crystal ball at the end of the season. All points count. There are still several races left to make up for the ten-point gap.”
Canada finished this home World Championships with two medals. In addition to Kingsbury's gold, Elliot Vaillancourt took solo silver, his second career podium finish. Given that Canada had four skiers in the top 10 overall before Val Saint-Côme, Hameln expected better results.
“I expected more,” he admitted. Elliot, Julien [Viel] and Louis David [Chalifoux] are no longer developing World Cup boys because they have regularly achieved top 6 and top 8 placements. They've had some good runs, some not so good runs, but the good news is they're still in the top 8 or top 10. I'm happy, but I'm expecting a little more in the next few weeks.”
“In the women’s race, Maia Schwinghammer skis very well, as evidenced by her 2nd place finish in qualifying on Friday,” added Hamelin. She also did well in the duel with an 8th place. As for Berkley Brown, she achieved her best career finish with a 6th place finish on Saturday.”