Moguls World Cup moves to Calgary
Feb 01, 2020·Freestyle
The FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup is set to hit its second of back-to-back moguls events in Canada, rolling into one of the most historically important venues in freestyle skiing this weekend, with a big day of competition hitting Calgary’s WinSport Canada Olympic Park on Saturday.
The FIS Freestyle World Cup competition was first held in Calgary back in 1981, with the first moguls competition taking to the challenging Calgary’s moguls pitch in 1987, just before of the Calgary 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
Then, at the 1988 Games, freestyle skiing made its Olympic debut as a demonstration sport, with moguls, aerials, and acro competitions laying the foundation for freestyle disciplines to become the overwhelmingly popular Olympic draw that it is today.
Saturday’s competition in Calgary will be also the 11th consecutive World Cup event after the tour came back to the WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park in 2010.
In men’s qualification held already on Friday, it was Japan’s Ikuma Horishima who came with the highest score of the day, leading top 16 men into Saturday’s finals. Horishima is having a tremendous start into 2019/20 campaign, finishing in top-3 in each of four competitions so far including a huge victory in Thaiwoo (CHN) back in December. And coming off straight from his second place in Tremblant last week, it’s fair to expect that Horishima will try to push the limits once again as he will be looking for his first ever podium on the iconic venue in Calgary.
But it will be the current World Cup leader Mikael Kingsbury of Canada, who will be entering competition in Calgary as the favourite for victory. Kingsbury has already three wins to his record in 2019/20 and he missed the top spot in Calgary only once since 2011, when he finished second behind Australia’s Matt Graham back in 2017. Taking account his recent form, it’s hard to imagine Kingsbury aiming for anything else but victory on Saturday in front of the Canadian fans.
Looking at some other big names in Calgary, keep an eye on Benjamin Cavet (FRA), afore-mentioned Matt Graham, as well as Walter Wallberg (SWE) and Dmitriy Reikherd (KAZ), who are rounding out moguls World Cup top-6 so far in 2019/20 campaign.
Then, also expect the likes of Sascha Theocharis (FRA), Jussi Penttala (FIN), Felix Elofsson (SWE) and Laurent Dumais (CAN) to ski their best in Saturday’s finals after strong showings in the qualification round.
Over on the women’s side Perrine Laffont of France will be trying to extend her winning streak on Saturday, with a perfect four-for-four up to this point in the season. In Calgary, however, Laffont will be looking to fight for her first top spot at Winsport’s Canada Olympic Park, after she finished in a runner-up position twice in 2018 and 2019.
Going further down the starting list count on Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), Jaelin Kauf (USA), Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), Anri Kawamura (JPN) and Anastasiia Smirnova (RUS), with all five athletes finishing already on the World Cup podium this season. No doubt on Saturday they will be ready for another exciting day of top-tier moguls action.
Add to the mix Australia’s Jakarta Anthony and Brittney Cox, as well as Canada’s Chloe Dufour-Lapointe, who has always performed well in Calgary, and the women’s event shapes up to be an exciting one.
Saturday’s World Cup competition in Calgary will kick off with women’s qualification rounds at 11:00 LOC. Both women’s and men’s finals will follow up right after at 13:30.
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