Wallberg storms to Olympic gold in men’s moguls
Feb 05, 2022·Freestyle
The first freestyle medal event of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games went down at the moguls course at Genting Snow Park on Saturday, where 21-year-old Walter Wallberg beat the most decorated moguls skier of all time to claim the first Olympic gold medal for Sweden in freestyle skiing.
Dropping as the last athlete in third and final round of finals, Wallberg charged down the steep course, laying down a super fast and clean run to upset the defending champion Mikael Kingsbury (CAN). Wallberg’s winning score of 83.23 was more than a full point above 29-year-old Kingsbury’s 82.18, though both skiers pulled off impressive 1080s on the bottom air, while also showcasing flawless technique on the moguls.
“I knew I had to put down a very good run and ski faster and do some bigger jumps,” Wallberg said, noting how he, Kingsbury and bronze medallist Ikuma Horishima (JPN) had been trading World Cup podium spots leading up to Beijing 2022. The Swede, though, had never reached top of the podium before.
“We’ve been fighting all season. I’ve been trying to get that first place for such a long time, so this was great timing,” Wallberg said. “I’ve been injured for the past two years with an ACL (knee) injury. Three surgeries. I didn’t expect a very good season coming into it, was just trying to do my best and have been working very hard to get back at this level of skiing that I’m skiing at now. It’s just pure hard work.”
Wallberg’s triumph is the first Olympic gold medal for Sweden in freestyle skiing. However, worth mentioning is the fact that Hakan Hansson led Sweden to victory back in 1988 in Calgary (CAN), when moguls made its Olympic debut as a demonstration event.
In final 2, with 12 skiers still in contention, Kingsbury, the PyeongChang 2018 gold medallist and Sochi 2014 silver medallist, showed he could be beaten on the day. He did not ski the best run, and it was Wallberg’s incredible speed that put him on top of the field with only one more round remaining in the competition. And in the next and final round, Wallberg managed to beat Kingsbury again.
“I have tried to ski fast and do some great jumps,” Wallberg continued, ”The part that made me get a higher score today was that I was skiing a bit faster than the other guys.”
“He gets to sit on the throne today. It was a special run and he deserves it,” Kingsbury said. “He didn’t steal it at all. I tried to do what I thought I needed to do to win, and good on him.”
With his silver medal here, Kingsbury reached the podium for a third time and extended Canada’s grip on freestyle skiing, earning a 26th medal, one more than the USA.
Kingsbury is now also Canada’s most decorated freestyle skier and with his third Olympic medal he also tied Edgar Grospiron’s record for most Olympic podiums in mogul skiing history.
"Our sport is so much about performance on one single day and we have one event at every Games so it's not easy,” said Kingsbury, “We don't have another chance or another day to have another try. It's everything on one day and I'm proud that I've been able to do that for 12 years."
kuma Horishima finished the competition in third place with 81.48 points, giving Japan its second consecutive bronze medal in men’s moguls and its fifth Olympic medal in freestyle skiing.
“Four years ago it was a failure on my part and I’ve been thinking about the Beijing Olympics,” said Horishima, ”Until I saw this result today, I was quite frustrated all this time. But with this medal, as well as all the friends and supporters of mine, today actually helped me take a big step forward. I am so happy with this result, but my goal is to get an Olympic gold medal, so I'll continue to work on it. I would like to take today as a new beginning and work hard from here.”
Moguls action at Beijing 2022 OWG continues tomorrow, with women’s competition scheduled to begin at 18:00 local time with second round of qualifications. Finals are once again set to go down under the lights at 19:30.
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