Mikael Kingsbury won it all. His triumphs are so numerous that we sometimes lack synonyms when the time comes to recount them in our pages, that is to say.
On a shelf in the skier’s lounge, in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, medals and souvenirs are piled up. The Olympic medals are eye-popping. On the top shelf are a few crystal globes – the others are with Kingsbury’s parents, not far from there, in Deux-Montagnes. The skier’s spouse, Laurence, explains to us that she is still thinking about how to collect and install the 24 globes in the same room.
Twenty-four globes. That’s more than anyone else in this discipline.
Are Kingsbury too strong for the league?
On this hot August Thursday in the Laurentians, far from the snow and the ski slopes, in the comfort of his welcoming home, the main interested party answers instinctively: “No. »
“I, sometimes, I look at my run in training and I say to myself, ‘It’s going to be tough to finish in the top 5,'” he says, seated in his kitchen, can of Bubly in hand.
“You say that to yourself today?”
“Yeah,” he blurts out with a smile. Of course, there are certain tracks where I really have confidence in myself. It’s just that sometimes when I sit down and think, watch videos, I think everyone is good. I can’t say, ‘We beat him. He is strong !” »
Kingsbury takes no one lightly. When he steps onto the top step of the podium at the end of a competition – a routine he’s subscribed to – it’s the culmination of a whole series of decisions. It is the result of everything that has been done in the previous days, weeks and months.
“With every race, there’s the moment when you leave home, you get on a plane, you land, you check into a hotel room. I put my things in my room. […] Everything is super organized. I drag everything in doubles, so I don’t miss anything. »
For each new track, the skier takes notes in a notebook. He draws his journey there. Then he watches videos. What are his opponents doing? What are their times? What are its own times? How can he maximize his score? Who are the judges?
The freestyle skier insists: every victory is different.
“There are people who say, ‘Mik has won so many times, he doesn’t care, he’s used to it, it doesn’t change a thing.’ But in the contrary… “
In the archives of La Presse are hidden dozens of photos of Mikaël Kingsbury, gold medal around his neck and a smile on his face in the snow. If the image is familiar to us, it is even more so for the champion.
“Sometimes I force myself to like it,” he blurts out. I’m like, ‘Stay on the podium a little longer. We never know…” “
Kingsbury acquired this view at the end of 2020, when he fractured two vertebrae during a descent in Finland. While returning to competition two months later, the injury made him realize that he “maybe took a few things in life for granted.”
With 80 World Cup victories, eight World Championships and one Olympics, “the King” has created expectations in spite of himself. Strangely, in his rare case, a second place finish is almost seen as a failure.
“There are races where we are 60 guys. Finishing second is great! I think sometimes the world takes me for granted. There are even times when, with my coaches, we say to ourselves, “We will go and check what we missed.” But I gave it my all. »
At the start of the interview, Kingsbury explained to us that he intended to continue his career until the next Winter Olympics, which will take place in 2026. “After that, we will see. We’ll see if I achieved my goals. »
The word “goals” in his case is interesting. So what does he still want to accomplish?
First, there’s the singles gold medal, which slipped out of his hands in Beijing. It would have been his second, after that of PyeongChang. When he takes to the track at the Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, in two and a half years, it will be to win.
“[The medal], we’re going to put it there and there’s going to be room for two,” he said, pointing to the shelf. Because after that there are the duels, a few days later. »
This will be the first time that the dual race will be part of the Olympic programme. “I want to be the first [to win],” he blurts out.
“If I finish second and left everything on the track, am I going to be disappointed? In a way, yes, because I want to win. But if I get beaten by someone who was much better than me, it is what it is. That’s sports. »
“It’s hard, those questions!” I will say the Olympics because it is my childhood dream. I couldn’t believe it when I did it. »
“Inawashiro, 2013. This is my first time racing there. This is the steepest track. […] It is legendary for me because I have watched this race on TV since I was young. I ski it and it meets my expectations: I’m not able to make it down to practice. I just do shit, I don’t jump well. In my head, I’m like, “It’s Inawashiro, anything can happen.” […] In the superfinal, I did my best run and I won the race. I went from being a guy who didn’t know what to do, who had no strategy, to winning the race. It was hot! »
“In China, December 2018. I raced, I was sick. I had a gastro. I slept next to the toilet bowl. I was green. I have an interview of me downstairs where I look like the living dead. And I won the race. My body is weird. Every time I had to sit in the gate, he would give me a one-minute break. As soon as I crossed the bottom line, my stomach… I was sweating. My body had a fever while I was skiing. »
