The moguls World Cup season gets underway in Ruka

Dec 06, 2018·Freestyle

Pavel Kolmakov (KAZ) competing at the last year's event in Ruka (FIN)

The highly anticipated 2018/2019 moguls World Cup season is set to finally get underway this week in Finland at the Freestyle Opening Ruka, with competition slated to go down under the lights on December 7.

It will be a ninth consecutive year that will see the world’s best moguls skiers descending to Ruka for the season’s opening World Cup competition, and the Finnish resort just south of the Arctic Circle has consistently delivered a top-notch venue and a thrilling competition year after year.

Nearly all national teams are already in Ruka training ahead of the season, but there a few names that should be on everyone’s radar when looking for the favourites in Finland.

On the ladies’ side watch out for Perrine Laffont (FRA) who will be looking to extend her excellent form from the last season, in which she won the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic gold medal, also taking the crystal globe for top spot in the overall moguls World Cup ranking.

However the 2017/2018 ladies’ moguls World Cup season was one of the most hotly contested battles for the crystal globe in recent memory, with multiple lead changes throughout the winter and six different winners through the season’s ten events, meaning no athlete won more than twice on tour in the entire season.

When looking for contenders for the top spots in Ruka’s Friday competition count on Jaelin Kauf (USA), Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), Yulia Galysheva (KAZ), Tess Johnson (USA) and Andi Naude (CAN), just to name a few.

Last, but not least, there’s Britteny Cox (AUS) who was also in the World Cup winners mix last season, finishing in third, just behind Laffont and Kauf after the final event in Megeve. Cox has a strong history of results in Ruka, winning the last two competitions there in 2017 and 2018.

Over on the men’s side Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) will be looking to dominate yet another World Cup season. In 2017/2018 he finished no lower than second in any competition, set a new record for consecutive wins by a men’s moguls skier in January (13, dating back to the 2016/17 season), won the Olympic gold medal in Korea, and won both the moguls and Freestyle overall globe for the seventh-straight season to pass Hannah Kearney for most moguls globe wins and inch closer to Connie Kissling’s record 10 Freestyle overall titles.

Kingsbury has an impressive record in Ruka too, winning six out of eight contest held on Finish soil since the event made its return to the moguls World Cup tour back in 2010.

While it’s been a challenge for the last couple of years to win against Kingsbury, there will be a whole bunch of talented skiers in Ruka eager to upset the Olympic champion.

Among them keep an eye on last season’s World Cup number two and the Olympic silver medallist Dmitriy Reikherd (KAZ), the Olympic bronze medallist Matt Graham (AUS) as well as the only man who was able to beat Kingsbury last season, the reigning double world champion Ikuma Horishima (JPN).

Apart from the competition on the “Battery Run” course in Ruka, the 2018/2019 FIS Freestyle Ski moguls World Cup season will visit eight more venues spread all over Asia, Europe and North America.

After Ruka the athletes will travel to Thaiwoo (CHN) to compete in a double contest just before the holidays break. Three more stops in January in Calgary (CAN), Lake Placid (USA), and Tremblant (CAN) just before all eye will turn to the Utah 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships with the classic Deer Valley moguls and dual moguls competition set to be the big highlight of the season.

At the end of February we’ll see another double event in Tazawako (JPN) as well as the season’s final competition on a brand new venue in Shymbulak (KAZ) on the following week.

Competition in Ruka gets underway on Friday, December 7, with the ladies’ qualifications starting at 10:00 LOC, the men’s qualifiers set for 13:05 LOC, and the evening finals going down 16:30 LOC.

TV SCHEDULE

Canada - CBC Sports - delayed at 9:30pm ET

China - CCTV - time to be confirmed

Europe - live on Eurosport player

Asia/Pacific - live on Eurosport 1

Finland - live on YLE TV 2 and YLE Areena

France - live on L'Equipe

Germany - same-day highlights on Das Erste in Sportschau

Italy - delayed on Rai Sport on 10.12 at 12:00 CET

Japan - live on JSports

Poland - Live on Polsat Sport Extra

USA - same-day delayed on NBC Olympi Channel at 3:00pm