Laffont and Kingsbury close out Deer Valley’s freestyle weekend with Ws
Feb 05, 2023·Freestyle
The final day of action at the Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International saw the season’s fourth dual moguls World Cup competitions take to Deer Valley’s (USA) legendary Champion Run, where Perrine Laffont and Mikael Kingsbury put down exceptional performances to claim the top spots in style.
After finishing in respective third and second place in single moguls event on Thursday, Laffont and Kingsbury both looked to be on an absolute mission for the top of the podium through throughout the day on Saturday - especially in the big final matchups, where each of the athletes dropped massive runs, faced the pressure and rose to the occasion in impressive fashion.
Starting with the women’s event, Laffont finally snagged her first victory of the season, after claiming top-3 in all, but one competitions this entire season. On Saturday she edged out Tees Johnson (USA), Elizabeth Lemley (USA), Rino Yanagimoto (JPN) before facing the fastest women on tour Jaelin Kauf (USA) in the big final.
Once there, Kauf couldn’t however quite control the speed and stick her run the way she wanted and after she hit the brakes hard in the middle part of the course, it was pretty clear that Kauf wouldn’t challenge Laffont for the top spot on Saturday, leaving the French super-star with a well-deserved win.
Despite losing to Laffont in the big final, Kauf wrapped up the weekend with her second runner-up spot, giving plenty of reasons to celebrate to her massive fan club that gathered at the bottom of the Champion Run in Deer Valley.
Completing the women’s podium in third place, was another US skier Hannah Soar, who came victorious agains Rino Yanagimoto in the small final matchup as she grabbed her first top-3 World Cup finish in over two years.
On the men’s side of things Mikael Kingsbury was back to his winning ways, taking a convincing victory on Saturday after winning his big final heat against Matt Graham to cap off a challenging, but also very successful weekend here in Utah. After clinching the single moguls World Cup title on Thursday, the King of Moguls also reclaimed the top spot in the dual moguls ranking and he will be hoping to close out the 2022/23 season with all three crystal globes in his hands for yet another year.
Thursday’s winner Graham finished the dual moguls competition in the respective second place for his second top-3 finish this week in Deer Valley.
After somehow a disappointing performance in the single moguls events, Walter Wallberg stepped things up a notch to redeem himself as he rounded out the men’s podium in third place after edging out Yutaro Murata (JPN) in the small final.
The FIS Freestyle Ski moguls World Cup now moves to Chiesa in Valmalenco (ITA) for the final dual moguls event before the World Championships taking place next Saturday, February 11.
QUICK LINKS
Deer Valley World Cup FIS data page (start lists, results, etc.)
Full results: DUAL MOGULS WOMEN / DUAL MOGULS MEN
