Freestyle Skiing | Two other crystal globes for Mikaël Kingsbury

Mikaël Kingsbury was imperial for a second day in a row at the Almaty Dual Moguls World Cup on Saturday in Kazakhstan.

Champion in the individual event the day before, the athlete from Deux-Montagnes added an 80th World Cup victory, as well as the 23rd and 24th crystal globes, i.e. those of the parallel and the individual and parallel combined.

“I am at 24: I equal the number of Stanley Cups of the Montreal Canadiens! I just have the New York Yankees [with 27 World Series titles] left,” Kingsbury quipped in a videoconference.

Kingsbury secured the Specialty Crystal Globe with their first-round win by defeating South Korean Daeyoon Jung. The 30-year-old admitted to feeling a lot of nervousness at the start of the day.

“If Walter won, I had to finish eighth at best to get my hands on the globe. »

In the final, Kingsbury was precisely opposed to the Swede Walter Wallberg. He accelerated in the middle of the course to catch up with the Quebecer, but at the cost of breaking his form, while Kingsbury remained very stable. Still behind before the last jump, the Quebecer stretched his right arm before crossing the finish line. He was ultimately faster than Wallberg by 3 hundredths of a second.

Kingsbury won 22-13 and the two competitors hugged each other before the athlete from Deux-Montagnes went to celebrate his victory.

“I get on really well with Walter. I think we are the two fastest skiers on the circuit. To finish the season with the top two in the final, it’s great and it’s satisfying to beat him! It was fun to finish on top against Walter,” added Kingsbury.

To reach the final, the “King” first defeated South Korean Daeyoon Jung, before defeating American Nick Page in the quarter-finals and Australian Matt Graham in the semi-finals.

As for Elliot Vaillancourt, he saw his career come to an end in the quarter-finals when he was opposed to Matt Graham, eventual bronze medalist.

Vaillancourt, from Drummondville, finished fifth in the standings.

Also from the World Cup on Saturday, Gabriel Dufresne and Julien Viel finished 10th and 13th respectively after being stopped in the round of 16.

Last season, Kingsbury also won all three Crystal Globes.

“It’s new from last year to have three globes. Globes have always been important to me, I’m really satisfied. It always thrills me so much to get on the podium and go get another globe,” he concluded.