2020/21 FIS Freestyle Ski moguls World Cup season preview
Nov 30, 2020·Freestyle
The 2020/21 FIS Freestyle moguls World Cup season is ready to get underway this weekend once again at Finland’s Ruka resort, which will be the first of 10 competitions slated to take place across the moguls and dual moguls events this season. And while extensive covid-19 safety protocols in place at all venues on this season’s tour mean we won’t be seeing much in the way of spectators on site, we’re confident that the action we’ll be able to bring through TV broadcasts, livestream, and social media will be just as thrilling as in any FIS Freestyle campaign in years past, if not more so.
After Ruka on 5 December it’s over to Sweden’s Idre Fjall for MO and DM competitions from 11-13 Dec, before we break for the holidays. Then in the new year it’s over to North America, beginning first in Calgary where a pair of moguls events will go down from 28-29 January, with the first of those event replacing the Tremblant competition that was originally slated for 23 January. Then it’s down to the States for the annual freestyle bonanza in Deer Valley, with MO and DM going down on 4-6 February, before the World Cup breaks for the 2021 world championships that are slated for 18-29 Feb. Finally, we head to Asia to wrap things up, first at Tazawako in Japan from 06-07 March, before finishing things up in Almaty, Kazakhstan on March 13.
Full 2020/21 FIS Freestyle moguls World Cup calendar
Takeaways from 2019/20
If you’re talking moguls, you’re talking Perrine Laffont (FRA) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN). Laffont took her second-straight Freestyle overall globe last season in an incredible campaign that saw the 22 year-old win eight of 10 events entered. 28-year-old Kingsbury, meanwhile, registered his ninth-straight season of finishing tops on both the Freestyle overall and the moguls rankings, hitting the podium in every one of the season’s competitions with seven wins and three-runner up finishes.
While second and third overall finishers - Jakara Anthony (AUS) and Jaelin Kauf (USA) on the women’s side, and Ikuma Horishima (JPN) and Ben Cavet (FRA) on the men’s side - earned their rankings and podiums with some exceptional skiing, 2019/20 showed that it’s Laffont and Kingsbury’s world and everyone else is just living in it.
Watch out for in 2020/21
A few records could be toppling this season, and as you would expect, Mr. Kingsbury would factor into most of them. Tops on the list is the most Freestyle overall crystal globe victories of all time, and this season Kingsbury could tie the great Conny Kissling’s (SUI) mark of 10 - the most of any skier in any FIS discipline, ever. Also within reach are Donna Weinbrecht’s (USA) individual moguls victories and podiums benchmarks; with his next win Kingsbury will tie her with 45 victories, while with seven more podiums he ties her career podium mark of 67.
Aside from the records, the main thing to keep track of this season will be challengers to Laffont and Kingsbury for their thrones.
Australia’s Jakara Anthony finished second overall for the best season of her career last winter, and with three-straight podiums to finish off last season she’ll be looking to roll that momentum into a strong start to 2020/21. Jaelin Kauf, meanwhile, should be as hungry to topple Laffont as anybody on tour after finishing in the top-3 for the last three seasons running. Justine Dufour-Lapointe (CAN), Hannah Soar (USA), Yuliya Galysheva (KAZ) and Anri Kawamura (JPN) are all likely to be in the podium hunt on the regular in women’s competition as well.
At this point it’s become tough to imagine that anyone will ever take Kingsbury’s throne away from him by force - it seems clear that if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen whenever he decides to hang up the bib and retire.
Having said that, Japan’s Ikuma Horishima has been the one skier to consistently push Kingsbury to his limits over the past several seasons, and all three of Kingsbury’s runner-up finishes last year came to the 22-year-old Japanese skier. As well, with Horishima sweeping the world champs moguls and dual moguls golds at Sierra Nevada 2017 and Kingsbury doing the same at Utah 2019, we’re all looking forward to their showdown at this season’s biggest event in China.
Beyond Horishima, France’s Ben Cavet remains one of the steadiest skiers on tour, finishing in the top-3 in four of the last five seasons. Veterans Dmitry Reikherd (KAZ) and Matt Graham (AUS) remain in the top-tier of moguls skiers, while Laurent Dumas (CAN) and Walter Wallberg (SWE) should also be in the mix at most events.
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