Giaccio and Kingsbury shine under the lights in Ruka
Dec 04, 2021·Freestyle
A hugely successful three-day showcase of the best of freestyle skiing wrapped up on Saturday in Finnish Lapland region, where moguls competition closed out the 2021 Freestyle Ski Opening World Cup event in typically spectacular fashion. There Olivia Giaccio (USA) stormed to claim her career’s first World Cup victory, while Mikael Kingsbury came back on top of the podium in Ruka after an extremely entertaining moguls showdown.
This season marked the 12th-straight that Ruka has served as the jumping-off point for the FIS Freestyle moguls World Cup season, and as always the resort did not disappoint, with the Battery Run moguls venue once again rewarding those best able to attack its deep bumps and steep pitch.
In the women’s competition Olivia Giaccio was on fire all day long, first coming with a super solid run to clinch the top spot in qualifications, and then improving each of her runs in the finals and finishing the competition in first place with 78.51 points for her third and final attempt.
Giaccio, who missed most of the previous two World Cup campaigns while recovering from an ACL injury, looked stronger than never before, especially impressing with her jumps as well as technique on the bumps. With only one top-3 World Cup finish before competition in Ruka, Giaccio’s victory on Saturday was unexpected, but definitely well deserved. The 21-year-old skier looked very confident throughout the entire day and we can’t wait to see her performing some 1080s on the jumps once the season progress.
Second place on the day went to Australia’s Jakara Anthony, who recorded her career’s 10th World Cup podium, while Giaccio’s teammate Kai Owens rounded out the women’s podium in third place.
Things were equally exciting over in men’s competition, where Mikael Kingsbury came back on top of the podium in Ruka, after the Canadian skier missed the competition on “Battery Run” last season due to his lower back injury.
The road to victory on Saturday wasn’t necessary easy, as Kingsbury faced some really tough competitions, especially from the likes of Ikuma Horishima (JPN), Pavel Kolmakov (KAZ) and fans’ favourite Jimi Salonen (FIN).
After qualifying in top spot, Kingsbury played it rather safe in the first round of finals with Horishima, Kolmakov and Salonen showing that all of them would be in the mix to battle for victory once it’s down to best six riders. But then once again, Kingsbury showed his experience and delivered the best run of the day to snag his 9th victory on the venue in Ruka.
Pavel Kolmakov also managed to step things up in the super final as he scored his career’s second World Cup podium, which came four years after he snagged his first top-3 finish, also on the course in Ruka.
Ikuma Horishima completed the men’s podium in third place.
The moguls World Cup action now moves to Sweden, where a pair of competitions is scheduled to take place next weekend, December 11-12.
QUICK LINKS:
Ruka World Cup data page (startlists, live timing, results)
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