Kingsbury sweeps season’s Crystal Globes with dual moguls gold in Almaty
Mikaël Kingsbury claimed all three moguls Crystal Globes after victories in the final events of the FIS World Cup season in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The 30-year-old Canadian secured his 80th victory and the dual moguls Crystal Globe with a dominant performance in Saturday’s final. The top two in the standings went head-to-head in the big final, but Sweden’s Walter Wallberg was no match for Kingsbury who posted a score of 22.00 to defeat Wallberg (13.00).
Australia’s Matt Graham won the small final to finish with bronze. Fellow Canadians Elliot Vaillancourt and Gabriel Dufresne finished fifth and tenth, respectively.
Kingsbury comfortably defeated Daeyoong Jung of Korea and Nick Page of the USA on his way to the semifinals where he beat Graham, who was searching for his first dual moguls win of the season.
Kingsbury reached the podium in five of the six dual moguls World Cup stops this season, winning three.
With his 24 career Crystal Globes, Kingsbury has more World Cup season titles than any other freestyle skier in history. He currently sits at 80 career World Cup victories in 135 starts.
Almaty will also host the last aerials World Cup events of the season on Sunday.
Golden in final World Cup moguls event on Friday
Mikaël Kingsbury finished off the FIS World Cup season in moguls the way he started it — with a victory.
Kingsbury took the gold medal in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Friday with a score of 85.67 points. He defeated his closest challenger, home favourite Pavel Kolmakov, by almost seven points. The Kazakhstani skier earned 78.72 points from the judges to edge out Australian Matt Graham for the silver by just three-tenths (0.3) of a point.
Three other Canadians advanced to the first round of the final, but only Kingsbury moved on to the six-man super final. Gabriel Dufresne placed 12th, followed by Julien Viel in 13th, and Eliot Vaillancourt in 14th. Kingsbury had also been the top scorer in the first final with 83.59 points.
Kingsbury did not miss the podium in any World Cup moguls competition this season, earning three gold and three silver medals in the six events. That put him atop the season standings for the discipline, earning him the Crystal Globe.
On Saturday, he’ll compete in the last dual moguls event of the season. Kingsbury has reached the podium in four of the five World Cup stops thus far in that discipline, putting him in line to clinch that Crystal Globe with a good result. That would be his third on the season, as he has already secured the overall Crystal Globe as the top man in moguls and dual moguls combined.
READ: Kingsbury wins historic hat trick at 2023 World Championships
This final World Cup weekend comes three weeks after Kingsbury last competed, when he won gold in both the moguls and dual moguls events at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. It was the third straight worlds at which he claimed both titles.
Almaty will also host the last aerials World Cup events of the season on Sunday.
