Lake Placid set to host moguls and aerials World Cups
Aug 31, 2018·Freestyle
Lake Placid, USA - The FIS Freestyle World Cup returns to one of the most important and iconic venues in skiing this weekend for back-to-back days of competition, beginning with moguls on Whiteface Mountain on Friday and finishing up with a nighttime aerials event under the lights at the Olympic Jumping Complex on Saturday night.
Lake Placid has been a stop on the Freestyle World Cup for over 30 years, with the first moguls and aerials competitions held in 1985 at the former Olympic venue. Besides being one of the longest-running venues in Freestyle, Lake Placid serves as the home of the USA’s Olympic Training Center for freestyle skiing, skiding sports, and biathlon. Lake Placid bills itself the “Winter Sports Capital of the World,” and it just might be right about that.
Both the moguls and aerials World Cups are just one stop into the 2016/17 season, with moguls athletes kicking things off at the Freestyle Opening Ruka (FIN) and the aerials skiers taking part in a pair of competitions in Beida Lake (CHN) back in December.
Ahead of Friday’s moguls competition in Lake Placid it is 22-year-old Britteny Cox (AUS) and perennial master Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) sitting atop the respective ladies’ and men’s leaderboards after capturing wins at the season opener in Ruka.
The win was the first of her career for Cox, and come in her 34th World Cup start. Despite her young age, Cox has been a regular on the moguls tour eight seasons now, and with her victory last month seems poised to finally take her place amongst her sport’s elite.
And though it is still too early in the season to declare any sort of ‘youth movement,’ with the likes of 18-year-old Perrine Laffont (FRA) and 21-year-old Keaton McCargo (USA) sitting in second and third behind Cox on the ladies’ leaderboard, it appears there could be some challengers for the strong Dufour-Lapointe sisters of Canada for the top spots in 2016/17.
Kingsbury meanwhile just continues to add to his already lofty career totals, and now sits at 34 career victories ahead of Friday’s Lake Placid competition. Behind Kingsbury sits Matt Graham (AUS) in second and Ben Cavet (FRA) in third, making the men’s moguls leaderboard at the start of 2016/17 appear eerily similar to the way it looked at the conclusion of last season.
Though Kingsbury still holds a distinct edge in consistent run-to-run performance - and holds a trump card in the trick category with an inverted 1440 that he has yet to perform in competition - Graham, Cavet, and others have shown an increasing ability to push the Canadian and challenge for top spot on the podium.
Moguls action on Friday gets underway with qualifications at 09:50EST, followed by finals beginning at 13:30.
Lake Placid moguls World Cup data page
Hi-res photogallery (for editorial use, credit FIS/Buchholz)
Scott and Kushnir lead aerials fields as China sends "B" team
On the aerials side of things it’s Danielle Scott (AUS) Xu Mengtao (CHN) for the ladies and Qi Guangpu (CHN) for the men leading the way ahead of Saturday’s competition in Lake Placid, though only one of those athletes will be on hand to defend their hold atop the standings as the Chinese squad has elected to send their “B” team Stateside.
Scott’s two podium performance in Beida Lake - a first and a second - has her tied with Xu for the World Cup lead, and the Aussie will be looking to establish a cushion atop the standings on Saturday as she seeks to improve on last year’s second-overall performance and look towards taking this season’s crystal globe.
Just behind Scott and Xu is Nikitina Liubov (RUS) who, at just 17 years old, is leading a young and impressive Russian squad that includes her countrywoman Alexandra Orlova, who sits slightly down the list in fifth overall, and Veronika Korsunova, who claimed back-to-back second place finishes in Lake Placid last season.
For the aerials men Saturday will be an opportunity to knock some Chinese flags down a few pegs on the leaderboard.
Currently, Chinese aerialists, lead by Qi, occupy four of the top six spots, with Belarusians veterans Anton Kushnir (the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games gold medallist) and Maxim Gustik sitting in second and fourth, respectively.
The host US squad is also well-represented in the top ten, with Lillis brothers Christopher and Jonathon in seventh and eight, and their teammate Alex Bowen just behind in ninth. With just one podium to show from Lake Placid since 2011/12 (a victory for Mac Bohonnon), expect the US squad to pull out all the stops to win some hardware on home soil and close the gap on the like of Qi, Kushnir, and the others at the top.
Aerials competition at Lake Placid gets underway on Saturday afternoon at 19:55, followed by finals beginning at 20:15.
