30 days to Ruka: Who will set the pace in a changing Moguls field?

Just 30 days remain until the 2026/27 FIS Freestyle Moguls World Cup, with Azerbaijan as title partner, gets underway in Ruka, Finland, on 12 December. The familiar Battery Run will once again welcome the world's leading moguls skiers, but this year's opening field will look noticeably different.

Mikaël Kingsbury's retirement brings an end to one of the most successful careers in freestyle skiing, while the women's competition will be without both of last season's Crystal Globe winners, Olivia Giaccio (USA) and Jakara Anthony (AUS).

Their absence creates opportunities across the field, although the athletes preparing to challenge for this season's titles are hardly newcomers.

Last December, Ruka produced four different Moguls winners across two competition days. Ikuma Horishima (JPN) and Tess Johnson (USA) took the opening victories before Anthony and Matt Graham (AUS) came out on top in the second competition.

Three of those winners are preparing to return, offering an interesting starting point for a season in which several established rivalries could take on a different shape.

Horishima leads the field, but challengers are closing in

For much of the past decade, the men's Moguls World Cup revolved around the rivalry between Kingsbury and Horishima.

With the Canadian ending his career after reaching the milestone of 100 World Cup victories, Horishima enters the new season as the clear benchmark.

The Japanese skier completed the 2025/26 campaign with both the Overall Moguls and Moguls Crystal Globes, having also collected silver in Dual Moguls and bronze in Moguls at Milano Cortina 2026.

His consistency has been remarkable. By the end of last season, Horishima had reached the World Cup podium 58 times in 123 individual starts, a podium rate of more than 47%. Last winter alone, he finished on the podium in six of his seven World Cup appearances, including three victories.

Yet the numbers also suggest there is little room for complacency.

While Horishima finished comfortably ahead in the Overall standings, his margin over Graham in the Moguls classification was just 11 points, with the Australian collecting 345 points to Horishima's 356.

Graham also has recent success in Ruka on his side. His victory last December ended a long run of men's Moguls wins at the Finnish venue dominated by Kingsbury and Horishima.

Australia arrives with another compelling storyline in Cooper Woods, whose Olympic Moguls victory in Livigno was one of the biggest breakthroughs of last winter.

Woods entered the Games with just one World Cup podium to his name, then produced the performance of his career to claim gold ahead of Kingsbury.

The challenge now is translating that Olympic success into more consistent results across a full World Cup campaign. With Graham already established among the leading contenders, Australia has two athletes capable of challenging for major results.

The United States will also have considerable ambitions.

Nick Page finished third in the Moguls standings for the second consecutive season, while Charlie Mickel continued his progression with fourth place in both the Moguls and Dual Moguls classifications.

Landon Wendler and Asher Michel add further depth to the American squad.

Meanwhile, Canada begins its first season without Kingsbury, placing greater attention on Julien Viel.

The 24-year-old finished third in the Overall Moguls standings last winter and second in the Dual Moguls standings, demonstrating his ability across both formats. 

Sweden also faces changes following Walter Wallberg's decision to take a season away from competition, but the team still has proven World Cup podium contenders in Filip Gravenfors and Rasmus Stegfeldt.

Gravenfors finished third in the 2024/25 Overall Moguls standings and continued his strong form last winter, finishing third in Dual Moguls at Val Saint-Côme and second in Moguls at Waterville Valley before a training injury ruled him out of the Olympic Winter Games.

Stegfeldt, meanwhile, made an impression with two Dual Moguls runner-up finishes in 2023/24 and returned to the podium last March, taking second behind Horishima in Nanto-Toyama. With both athletes capable of challenging the leading names, Sweden could remain a factor in the men's competition.

France's Benjamin Cavet and Japan's Shota Hirayama also remain among the experienced challengers, while a younger generation is beginning to make its presence felt.

One athlete worth watching is Daeyoon Jung (KOR), who made history in Almaty during the 2024/25 season by becoming the first man representing the Republic of Korea to reach a Moguls World Cup podium, finishing second.

Japan also has a promising young skier in Ikkei Fujimura. The 19-year-old won the Dual Moguls title at the 2024 FIS Junior World Championships and has since been making progress at senior level. He finished sixth at the Nanto-Toyama World Cup last winter, won an Australia New Zealand Cup competition in Perisher during August and recently took second place at the Hintertux FIS Open.

For athletes such as Jung and Fujimura, the new season offers an opportunity to turn occasional standout performances into more consistent results against the world's best.

An open women's title race

The women's competition faces an equally significant reshuffle.

Giaccio claimed her first Overall Moguls Crystal Globe last season following a consistent campaign in which she reached the Moguls podium at every World Cup stop.

Anthony, meanwhile, secured the Moguls Crystal Globe after finishing level with Giaccio on 360 points, taking the title on a tiebreak thanks to her greater number of victories.

Both will be absent when the new season begins.

Giaccio is recovering from knee surgery and has confirmed that she will miss the entire winter, while Anthony has opted to take a planned break from competition after more than 15 consecutive winters on the circuit.

Their absence leaves plenty of room for movement at the top of the standings.

Among those best placed to take advantage is Tess Johnson, who finished third in both the Overall and Moguls classifications last season.

The American opened the previous campaign with victory in Ruka, demonstrating the technical precision and consistency that helped her produce one of her strongest World Cup seasons to date.

Jaelin Kauf will also be a major contender.

The three-time Olympic silver medalist delivered a standout 2024/25 campaign, sweeping all three Crystal Globes in Moguls, Dual Moguls and Overall Moguls, before adding World Championships gold in Dual Moguls at St. Moritz.

Although she did not repeat that Globe success last winter, Kauf remained among the leading competitors, particularly in Dual Moguls, winning both World Cup events in Val Saint-Côme and Nanto-Toyama.

With both Moguls and Dual Moguls contributing to the Overall title race, Kauf's ability to challenge across the two formats could prove especially important.

The United States can also count on Kasey Hogg, who finished fifth in last season's Moguls standings, alongside Alli Macuga and Kylie Kariotis.

Another athlete who will have plenty to say in the title race is Perrine Laffont (FRA).

The French star enters the season with one of the most impressive records in the sport: 33 World Cup victories, nine Crystal Globes and six World Championships gold medals.

An Olympic champion at PyeongChang 2018, Laffont added another Olympic medal to her collection with Moguls bronze at Milano Cortina 2026.

Her ability to remain competitive across multiple Olympic cycles has been one of the defining features of her career. After taking a year away from competition in 2023/24, she returned to the World Cup with victory in Ruka in November 2024 and went on to claim her sixth World Championships title in St. Moritz the following March.

Laffont finished second behind Johnson in Ruka's opening race last December, and with two of her main rivals absent this winter, the French skier will once again be among the leading contenders for the Crystal Globes.

Canada's Maïa Schwinghammer also has the credentials to challenge. A World Cup winner and World Championships medalist, the Canadian finished ninth in the Moguls standings last season and will be looking to establish greater consistency.

Austria's Avital Carroll and Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Gorodko add further competition, with Gorodko coming off an early-season FIS Open victory in Hintertux.

For Australia, the absence of Anthony creates an opportunity for Charlotte Wilson.

The 2024/25 FIS Rookie of the Year, who also claimed her maiden World Cup victory in Dual Moguls that season, finished sixth in Olympic Moguls at Milano Cortina 2026 before winning both women's titles at the Australian Championships in Perisher during August.

Japan will also bring a mix of experience and emerging talent to Ruka.

Rino Yanagimoto has established herself as a regular contender on the international circuit, while Haruka Nakao, Hina Fujiki and Yuma Taguchi are among the athletes looking to take the next step.

With several established champions absent, the opening competitions will provide an early indication of which athletes are ready to take on a more prominent role in the women's field.

One race to open a season with plenty at stake

Ruka's 12 December competition will feature women's and men's Moguls, with Dual Moguls returning to the World Cup program in January.

The tour will resume after the holiday break in Val Saint-Côme, Canada, on 15–16 January, before continuing to Waterville Valley in the United States on 22–23 January.

Deer Valley follows on 28–30 January, before the circuit heads to Almaty, Kazakhstan, for Moguls and Dual Moguls competitions scheduled for 26–28 February.

The World Cup season is scheduled to conclude at Shahdag, Azerbaijan, from 5–7 March, where Moguls and Dual Moguls competitions will help decide the final Crystal Globe standings.

The season then leads directly into the FIS Snowboard, Freestyle, and Freeski World Championships Montafon 2027 in Austria, providing another major target for the world's leading athletes.

For the Finnish team, Ruka also represents an opportunity to open the season on home snow. Olli Penttala, Severi Vierelä and Akseli Ahvenainen are among the athletes preparing to compete, with new technical coach Dylan Walczyk joining the program ahead of the winter.

There is still a month of preparation ahead, and the preliminary registrations will continue to develop before the final start lists are confirmed.

But the main storylines are already taking shape. Horishima will begin his title defense with several challengers close behind, while the women's field will have to establish a new order without two of last season's most successful athletes.

Ruka may only be the first competition of the winter, but it should offer an early indication of who is ready to take the next step.