Intriguing storylines abound ahead of Deer Valley World Cups
Feb 03, 2021·Freestyle
Against the odds, the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup is set this week to get down to business at one of one of the longest-running and most esteemed venues in all of freestyle skiing, as from February 4-6 we’re on site once again at Deer Valley Resort (USA) for the 2021 Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International moguls, dual moguls and aerials World Cup competitions.
This season’s Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International marks 23 years that Deer Valley Resort has played host to international freestyle skiing competition, including the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the 2003, 2011 and 2019 World Championships, as well as 18 iterations of the Deer Valley World Cup freestyle extravaganza. In fact, when you tally it all up, there have been exactly 100 competitions thus far across men’s and women’s moguls, dual moguls and aerials World Cup competitions - the most of any venue in Freestyle history. It’s a truly astonishing number, and testament to the phenomenal organisation and venues on site in Deer Valley.
As with most FIS Freestyle World Cup competitions this season, all events at Deer Valley will be closed to spectators to help ensure the safety of the athletes and those working at the event, as well as to ensure a successful completion of all competitions - a goal which is doubly important in this Olympic qualification period. As well, all events at Deer Valley this week will be run during the daytime, as opposed to the typical nighttime Deer Valley programme.
Moguls competition will go down on Thursday with finals beginning at 14:00 local time, followed by dual moguls finals on Friday beginning at 12:30, and aerials on Saturday at 14:30.
MOGULS & DUAL MOGULS
We’ll get to our full 2020/21 situation report below, but first the biggest news ahead of this week’s action in Deer Valley: Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury will be making his first starts of the 2020/21 season after injuring his back in training ahead of the season-opener in Ruka (FIN).
Kingsbury had shown remarkable resiliency throughout his 12-year World Cup career up until the training mishap in Ruka, and the 28 year-old was rolling into this winter with 9 straight seasons of dominance behind him, having won the moguls and Freestyle overall crystal globes for nearly a decade straight.
This season Kingsbury finds himself dropping in on Deer Valley wearing bib number 39 instead of the the yellow bib we’re all so used to seeing, and he’s looking at a huge mountain to climb if he wants to return to the top of the leaderboard and make it 11 straight seasons of crystal globe dominance. However, with only three competitions left on this years’ calendar - including the two in Deer Valley - that just might be an impossible task.
Now, for the rest of the field…
Once again dominating the women’s moguls World Cup is France’s Perrine Laffont, who has been perfect thus far in 2020/21 with three victories in three competitions, making for four straight wins dating back to the end of last season.
With her three wins already and only three events left in the season, all Laffont will have to do to lock up her fourth-straight moguls crystal globe this season is to get a single point in either of this week’s competitions in Deer Valley. With a previous record of three wins and five podiums in her last six competitions in Deer Valley, the odds of that happening seem…fairly high.
Behind Laffont, the host US team is looking strong, with Jaelin Kauf already scoring two podiums on the season and sitting in second overall behind Laffont, Hannah Soar with one 2020/21 podium to her credit and sitting in fourth overall, and Tess Johnson seventh on the moguls leaderboard.
Also with three skiers in the women’s top-10 is the Japanese squad, with Anri Kawamura in third on the strength of back-to-back podiums in Idre Fjall, and with Hinako Tomitaka and Kisara Sumiyoshi sitting in eight and tenth overall, respectively.
Others to watch out for on the women’s side include four-time Deer Valley winner Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), Anastasia Smirnova (RUS), and Jakara Anthony (AUS).
For the men, obviously all eyes will be on Kingsbury to see what the 10x Deer Valley winner will bring to the table in his return to competition. However, perhaps even more intriguing will be seeing how the men at the top of the leaderboard deal with the pressure of having the 2020/21 moguls crystal globe within reach. This is uncharted territory for essentially every athlete on the men’s side of the moguls World Cup, and the race to the finish of the season will be a hugely exciting one.
Sweden’s Ludvig Fjallstrom and Japan’s Ikuma Horishima currently sit tied atop the leaderboard with 172 points each, while seven other skiers are within 100 points and easy striking distance of that pair.
Matt Graham of Australia is closest to the top two in third place with 149 points and he, along with Horishima, are the only two athletes aside from Kingsbury who are competing this week and have a win at Deer Valley to their credit. However, several other athletes currently in the top-10 have Deer Valley podiums on their CVs, including Marco Tade (SUI), Brodie Summers (AUS), Ben Cavet (FRA) and the top US representative Bradley Wilson, with those skiers ranked fourth to eighth, respectively.
While Kingsbury remains the favourite regardless of the fact it’s been 11 months since his last World Cup start, every result earned this week in Deer Valley is going to have some intriguing implications on the standings. Buckle up, because it could get crazy here.
AERIALS
The aerials World Cup is fresh off a hugely entertaining showdown in Raubichi (BLR) last weekend the FIS Freestyle aerials World Cup has now only Deer Valley and Almaty left to complete on the World Cup calendar.
With the Chinese contingent sitting this season out due to covid-19 safety restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, and both the Russian and Belarusian teams not making the trip to North America, there's ample opportunity for athletes from the remaining nations on the start list to step up and make some noise on Saturday.
The host US squad rides into Deer Valley already on a high, having won three straight World Cup competitions - first for Megan Nick in Yaroslavl (RUS), then Winter Vinecki in Moscow, and then Nick again in Raubichi. Throw in a runner-up podium for Ashley Caldwell at the first of the two Yaroslavl competitions and you’ve got a string of four straight World Cups with podiums for US athletes. To say expectations are high for the host squad might be an understatement.
However, atop the women’s rankings is Laura Peel of Australia, and the reigning crystal globe winner has looked exceptional again this season with two wins and two runner-up results. Peel currently holds a lead of more than 100 points over Vinecki on the women’s rankings, with 370 points to Vinecki’s 263, and a strong result in Deer Valley this week could assure her of her second-straight aerials crystal globe.
On the men’s side of things, the crystal globe battle is already over, with Russia’s Maxim Burov going a perfect five-for-five in 2020/21 up to this point and locking down his second career title in commanding fashion.
Along with Burov, Russian skiers hold four of the top five positions on the current aerials World Cup leaderboard, with 2019/20 crystal globe winner Noe Roth the only non-Russian to hold a top-5 spot, sitting in fourth.
With the Russians not on hand in Deer Valley, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any changes in the standings after Saturday’s competition. Along with Roth, athletes like his countrymen Pirmin Werner and Nicholas Gygax, Lewis Irving of Canada, and the USA’s Justin Schoenfeld and Christopher Lillis could all theoretically find their way into the top-3 with strong performances in Deer Valley.
Obviously, there are plenty of intriguing in the coming days in Deer Valley, so check below for your best opportunity to watch the mogul and dual moguls action live, and stay tuned to our social media channels for aerials “Where to Watch” info…
WHERE TO WATCH - MOGULS:
FIS Freestyle YouTube live streaming (with geo restrictions), NBC Olympic Channel, Eurosport Player Europe, CBC Sports Streaming, CZ TV, TV2 SPXRT, YLE 2
DUAL MOGULS:
FIS Freestyle YouTube live streaming (with geo restrictions), NBC Olympic Channel, Eurosport Player Europe, CBC Sports Streaming, CCTV 5, CZ TV, YLE Areena,
QUICK LINKS:
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