Formidable Kingsbury promises more in four-in-a-row bid

Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) could become the first athlete to win medals in the same Freestyle Skiing event at four straight Olympics when the Men’s Moguls finals take place on Thursday.

The PyeongChang 2018 champion qualified third on 79.11 points at Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park on Tuesday behind compatriot Julien Viel in second (79.56 points) and Japan’s Ikuma Horishima (85.42).

He will be the most bemedaled male Freestyle Skiing competitor in Olympic history with a podium finish. And the battle for gold will be a fierce one.

Horishima was the only competitor to break the 80-point mark on Tuesday, crossing the line in 22.63 seconds after performing a double full and a cork 1080.

But the Beijing 2022 bronze medalist expects higher scores across the field in the final.

Winning gold will make Horishima the first Japanese to win this event since its Olympic debut at Albertville 1992. But the 28-year-old is focusing on showing the best version of himself.


“I’m chasing myself, not wins. That’s the reason I want do this,” the reigning World Champion said. “If someone does a cork 1080, I’d want to do a cork 14. That’s been my spirit since I was a kid. Also, if I do cork 1080, I’d want to make it more. I want to go for the bigger one. That’s also the reason why I sometimes make mistakes. It’s a lot of risk. I need to figure out the risk and what I need to do.”

Defending Olympic champion Walter Wallberg (SWE) qualified in sixth on 77.37 points while current World Cup No. 2 Matt Graham (AUS) posted 75.55 points to complete the top 10.

Charlie Mickel (USA), third at the World Cup in Livigno last year, just missed out in 11th. He will have it all to do in the second qualification that begins at 10:00 CET on Thursday, alongside compatriot Landon Wendler (USA), who was 12th.

Daeyoon Jung (KOR), the bronze medalist at the 2025 World Championships, was 27th in the 30-man field with 65.51 points, and will also need to finish in the top 10 of the second qualification to progress to the finals.

The finals start at 12:15 on Thursday.