Mikael Kingsbury celebrates his gold medal, which was Canada's first of the Milan Cortina Winter Games, on Sunday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Damn, Canada needed that gold. So did Mikaël Kingsbury.
Kingsbury, the world’s greatest freestyle skier, broke Canada’s Olympic gold medal drought on Sunday after beating Japan’s Ikuma Horishima in the men’s dual moguls final in Livigno. Before he won gold, Canada’s tally was three silvers and five bronzes – a relatively poor showing at the halfway point in the Games.
It also meant Kingsbury, who is 33 and from Deux-Montagnes, Que., will leave the Milan Cortina Olympics on a high, maybe the biggest high of his career.
Sunday’s event was his last Games appearance and he wanted to exit with the top medal around his neck. He had won silver in the singles moguls on Feb. 12 and was clearly disappointed by the outcome, all the more so since his score was identical to the winner’s – a quirk in the judging rules had denied him the top podium position.
Sunday’s win takes his Olympic medal tally to five, including two golds, over four Games. He has also won a record 100 World Cups.
Moguls skier Mikaël Kingsbury heads to his last Olympics
Kingsbury stood proud on the podium during a brilliant sunny day as the Canadian national anthem made its debut at Milan Cortina. “I felt unreal, what a feeling, the best feeling in the world,” he told reporters. “I was happy I got to break [the gold medal drought] and get the first gold medal for our country.”
After running the gauntlet of reporters – a requirement for medal winners after their events – Kingsbury strolled with a beaming smile into the audience corral to embrace a couple dozen family members and close friends, all of whom were there to see his last Olympic race. The were overjoyed – and relieved.
“When Mik was at the top of the course, about to start his race, my heart stopped beating and my lungs stopped breathing,” said his uncle, Michel Harvey.
His father-in-law, Michel Mongeon, said, “Mik just wanted to write his own story today, and he did. I talked to him the day before the race and he had a good aura around him. He was confident.”
The dual moguls made its Olympic debut in Milan Cortina. The event is a thrill, a real crowd pleaser. Two skiers run on parallel tracks down the course, giving it the appearance of a drag race as the competitors soar through the air on two required jumps and navigate a sea of moguls that push their knees right up to their chests. Since the judges give more points to turning ability and aerials than sheer speed, sometimes the athlete who crosses the line first is not the winner.
Canada's Mikaël Kingsbury competes in the freestyle skiing men's dual moguls quarter final during in Livigno on Sunday.JEFF PACHOUD/AFP/Getty Images
Kingsbury loves the dual moguls; going one-on-one appeals to his competitive instincts. His qualifying runs were nearly flawless. Those runs were somewhat less so for Horishima, 28, who is one of the top moguls experts on the planet – he won bronze in single moguls in Beijing 2022 and has several World Championships on his CV.
Several weeks ago, Kingsbury told The Globe and Mail that he knew Horishima would be his main competition in Milan Cortina. “I know he can go crazy and he’s capable of doing the 1440,” he said, referring to an aerial manoeuvre that involves four spins. “He makes me go out of my comfort zone.”
Kingsbury was right – he entered the final run against his Japanese rival after a morning that saw more than a few competitors crash or go wildly off course (in the 1/8 qualifying round, Korea’s Daeyoon Jung lost control and actually swerved in front of Kingsbury). The audience knew that the race could go either way. Both men were at the top of their game and both had beaten each other since the Beijing Games.
Kingsbury should have been a nervous wreck at the start, knowing that he might have to settle for silver again. But he said he was confident and calm. “I just trusted all the years of work and my coaches and I was exactly where I wanted to be. To make this race even better, you want to win against Ikuma. He’s the best and you want to win against the best,” he said.
Horishima was clearly nervous even if he didn’t show it. His run was close to a disaster. He stumbled near the end of the run, failed to complete his second jump and had to settle for silver. Kingsbury’s run was near-perfect; it was fast – very fast – and included a cork 1080 aerial.
“I was very sharp out there,” Kingsbury said. “I’m pretty fast, especially in the start. I push hard and they have to push harder if they want to beat me.”
Michel Hamelin, Kingsbury’s coach, said that Kingsbury can intimidate rivals, who sometimes push too hard and blow up – as Horishima did. “Everyone knows how good Mik is,” he said. “Everyone who goes up against him goes flat out and takes chances, because they have to.”
Horishima, it appears, pushed too hard. “It makes my gold medal even finer, to beat him in the final,” Kingsbury said.
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Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press