Mikaël Kingsbury denied Olympic moguls gold, but earns Canada's 2nd medal in Beijing
CBC
Canada's Mikaël Kingsbury has won an Olympic medal, but was unable to defend his men's Olympic moguls title, collecting silver on Saturday at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
Kingsbury finished with 82.18 points in the six-man super final at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, trailing Walter Wallberg of Sweden, who scored 83.23.
"I'm very proud," Kingsbury told CBC Sports. "This is my third Olympic medal in three Olympic Games. Our sport is only focused on performance on-demand … so I'm proud of the way I dealt with the pressure. We train four years for a one-day [final].
"I was able to put down my best run in super final and tried to put the pressure on Walter, but he answered very well. [I'm] proud of him."
The 29-year-old Kingsbury was attempting to become the second men's moguls skier to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals after fellow Canadian Alex Bilodeau achieved the feat in 2010 and 2014.
Kingsbury, who also captured Olympic silver in 2014, arrived at these Games peaking at the right moment with four victories this season and fresh off a silver medal in Deer Valley, Utah for his sixth World Cup podium finish in the event this season.
WATCH | Kingsbury denied Olympic gold by Wallberg:
"I can't wait to go home and see my family and friends and go celebrate," said the reigning world champion from Deux-Montagnes, Que. "It's [been] a lot of sacrifices in the past [few] months to be here [at the Olympics] and to be healthy."
Japan's Ikuma Horishima, the Canadian's friend and rival, earned the bronze medal on Saturday with 81.48 points. The 2017 world champion skied four times on the day, having advanced to the three-run final from the second qualification round.
Horishima, who has three World Cup wins this season, trails Kingsbury by 12 points in the overall standings.
Kingsbury told CBC Sports it wasn't easy to compete in a minus-13 C wind chill on Saturday.
"It's super cold here and our sport gets pretty hard when it's cold for the [100 per cent artificial] snow [in China] and trying to move your muscles fast," he said.
In a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, Kingsbury said he hoped for cold weather and difficult race conditions at the Olympics "because these are the conditions where I can shine a bit more."
In 120 World Cup starts, Kingsbury has 71 victories, 101 podiums and is in pursuit of a 10th consecutive gold Crystal Globe and 19th of his career as overall season winner.
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