Mikaël Kingsbury checks into every moguls competition as the undisputed favorite — the man to beat.
That routine excellence was on display over the weekend with a gold-medal sweep in men’s moguls at the freestyle world championships in Bakuriani, Georgia.
“I’m so happy to be an eight-time world champion,” Kingsbury, 30, said as he sipped a celebratory beer while talking with Canadian reporters via video conference. “It’s always my favorite thing crossing the finish line in a big event when you’ve done something good.”
Good? Try great.
The Deux-Montagnes, Que. product is so dominant that he makes bigger headlines on the rare occasions he fails to demolish the field — much like sprinter Usain Bolt, swimmer Michael Phelps and quarterback Tom Brady in their time.
On Sunday, Kingsbury soared to the top of the podium in dual moguls, dispatching Sweden’s Walterberg Wallberg 19-16 in the final.
The victory came 24 hours after he claimed gold in single moguls with a score of 89.82 in the super final, ahead of Australia’s Matt Graham and Wallberg.
Not surprisingly, come Sunday, Kingsbury said he felt exhausted.
“After arriving in finals, I was like, ‘OK, you got that much energy in the tank,”‘ he said, holding his thumb and his index finger centimetres apart. “‘Let’s empty the tank and push as hard as you can.”‘
And push he did, leaving no doubt about the identity of the best men’s moguls skier in the world.
“I wanted to not leave anything on the table and push,” said Kingsbury, who settled for silver at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing after a shocking final run for gold by Wallberg.
“If I learned something from the Olympics — it probably helped me for this event to go for it 100 per cent.
“And yeah. It was awesome.”
