Sierra Nevada 2017 set to fly with moguls opener

Aug 31, 2018·Freestyle

Sierra Nevada, SPA - The Sierra Nevada 2017 Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships get underway on Tuesday at the Spanish resort, with the official opening ceremonies kicking off the 12 days of ski and snowboard competition that will take to the iconic Spanish resort.

The first medal competition of Sierra Nevada 2017 takes place the day after the opening ceremony, with single moguls competition taking to the Le Visera moguls course dramatically located under the Sierra Nevada Observatory radio telescope. And then, on Wednesday, the moguls skiers will again take centre stage, with the always-thrilling dual moguls competition.

All the top moguls skiers will be on hand to compete in what many consider to be the most quintessential of the Freestyle events, with ladies’ and men’s 2016/17 crystal globe winners Britteny Cox (AUS) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN), the Dufour-Lapointe sisters (CAN), and top French duo Perrine Laffont and Ben Cavet leading the charge.

Cox and Kingsbury are of course the headliners of the show, with Cox coming into Sierra Nevada after a seven-victory season in which her clinical precision through the turns and jumps earned her the first moguls World Cup for an Australian skier since the great Dale Begg-Smith did it a decade ago. Cox has a bronze medal from the Kreischberg 2015 world championships, and it will be a great disappointment if she doesn’t add to that total in Sierra Nevada.

Kingsbury, meanwhile, comes in Sierra Nevada on the heels of seven-consecutive wins to close out the World Cup season - tying the record he himself set in 2014/15.

One record Kingsbury doesn’t own, however, is the most world championships gold medals, although that could all change over the course of the next couple of days. Currently Kingsbury has six world championships medals, two of them wins, putting him behind his former teammate Alex Bilodeau and French legend Edgar Grospiron on the all-time golds list. With a pair of wins in Spain, Kingsbury could attach his name to history once more.

Of course, we often see a hero step up on the day of a big competition to shock the world, such as Anthony Benna (FRA) did in beating the best in the single moguls competition in 2015. Keep an eye on the young US team lead by Jaelin Kauf, and the explosive Perrine Laffont on the ladies side, and on the likes of Matt Graham (AUS), Philippe Marquis (CAN), and Dmitriy Reiherd (KAZ) in the men’s competitions.

Moguls action at the Sierra Nevada 2017 Freestyle Ski and Snowboard World Championships gets underway at 9:50 on Wednesday morning with the ladies’ qualifications, followed by the men’s qualifiers at 11:50, and finals beginning at 14:00 (all times CET).

#2017 throughout the course of the world champs to become part of the action!

Kreischberg 2015 Freestyle Ski & Snowboard World Championships results

Moguls men:

Gold - Anthony Benna (FRA)

Silver - Mikael Kingsbury (CAN)

Bronze - Alexandr Smyshlyaev (RUS)

Moguls ladies:

Gold - Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN)

Silver - Hanna Kearney (USA)

Bronze - Britteny Cox (AUS)

Dual moguls men:

Gold - Mikael Kingsbury (CAN)