Fairy-tale Olympic gold for Woods as Kingsbury settles for silver on tiebreaker

Coming into the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, Cooper Woods (AUS) had one Moguls World Cup podium finish since he started competing on the circuit in 2017 — a silver from Waterville in 2024.

But the unlikeliest of men to dethrone Moguls King Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) put together the best run of his life to snatch Olympic gold in a tiebreaker, while Ikuma Horishima (JPN) took bronze.

Woods was the last to drop at Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park on Thursday, just after Kingsbury crossed the line in 22.79 seconds, having landed a back double full and cork 10 to amass 83.71 points.

The Australian responded with a back double full and cork 7, finishing in 22.61 seconds to also score 83.71 points. Crucially, the 25-year-old scored 48.4 on turns, 0.7 more than Kingsbury’s 47.7, to secure the biggest title of his career.

It was Woods’ third run of the day. He had to come out of Qualification 2, which he topped with 80.46 points, and kept his momentum going in the finals. He posted 83.60 in Final 1 to qualify for the super final first.

One of the best races: Graham

Reigning World Champion Horishima landed a cork 1440 en route to crossing the line in 22.23 seconds for 83.44 points.

Defending Olympic champion Walter Wallberg (SWE), fastest in the super final as he flew down the 28-degree slope in 21.84 seconds, was fourth on 82.40 points.

Current World Cup No. 2 Matt Graham (AUS) said he was just part of one of the best Men’s Moguls competitions of all time. The Pyeongchang 2018 silver medalist put down a 80.88-point effort that placed him fifth.

Still the Moguls King

If Milano Cortina 2026 proves to be Kingsbury’s (CAN) fourth and final Games, he could barely have asked for a more dramatic end to potentially his last Men’s Moguls Olympic race, with Dual Moguls to come.

Despite narrowly missing out on gold, Canada’s flag bearer at these Games is the first athlete to win medals in the same Freestyle Skiing event at four straight Olympics. The PyeongChang 2018 champion is also the most bemedaled male Freestyle Skiing competitor in Olympic history.