Laffont and Kingsbury repeats as moguls season wraps up in Almaty

Mar 18, 2023·Freestyle

A hugely successful weekend of back-to-back competitions in Almaty wrapped up on Saturday, where dual moguls event closed out another breathtaking season of FIS Freestyle Ski Moguls World Cup action. There, Perrine Laffont (FRA) and Mikael Kingsbury (CAN) repeated their performances from Friday and went all-out for top spot in respective women’s and men’ competitions.

After taking a huge win on Friday, Laffont kept her momentum going on Saturday and once again impressed with some flawless skiing throughout the day, keeping things clean in the bumps while throwing down some progressive tricks on the jumps. Her path to victory was no easy one, however, as she faced some tough match-ups against some very talented mogul skiers, including Li Ruilin (CHN), Rino Yanagimoto (JPN) and Alli Macuga (USA) on her way to the big final.

There, just like not so long ago at the World Championships in Bakuriani, Laffont faced Jaelin Kauf and once again after an extremely tight matchup, Laffont won the big final with 21 points to Kauf’s 14 and won her second competition this weekend.

It was the sixth straight win for Laffont and her fourth at the World Cup in 2022/23, and with a total of 11 podiums in 12 competitions to go along with her two World Championships gold medal, Laffont capped off another season on a high.

The second place on the day went to Kauf for her fifth top-3 World Cup finish in the season, while Olivia Giaccio (USA) rounded out the women’s podium in third place after winning all-American small final matchup against Alli Macuga.

Following her back-to-back wins on the weekend, Laffont wrapped up the season as the biggest winner on the women’s side, as the 2022 Olympic gold medallist from Beijing added another two titles to her impressive record, making it a total of nine World Cup crystal globes.

The most consistent athlete on the women’s side Laffont racked up four victories, while finishing outside top-3 in only one of 12 competitions scheduled for 2022/23 season. Consequently the 24-year-old Queen of Moguls won both dual moguls as well as moguls overall crystal globes.

In the final dual moguls standing, Laffont led the way with 520 points. Anri Kawamura (JPN) finished the campaign in second place with 380 points, while Jaelin Kauf completed the podium in third with 312 points.

In the moguls overall World Cup standing, Laffont wrapped up the season with a combined score of 950 points. Jakara Anthony (AUS) took second with 709 points, while Anri Kawamura finished in third place with 673 points.

Things were quite interesting also on the men’s side with plenty of tight and interesting clashes going down throughout the day. In the end it was Mikael Kingsbury, who completed a perfect weekend to wrap up another season of some truly remarkable achievements for the “King of Moguls”.

On Saturday Kingsbury was once again on a mission, besting the likes of Daeyoon Jung (KOR), Nick Page (USA), Matt Graham (AUS) and finally Walter Wallberg (SWE) in the big final matchup.

Kingsbury claimed his career’s 80th victory on Saturday, while also completing his second moguls hat trick - winning all three of the moguls, dual moguls and moguls overall crystal globes for this season.

And for those one counting, that’s now 24 crystal globes in his career for the King, putting him in first place for the most titles in FIS history.

With Kingsbury on top and Wallberg in respective second place on the day, Matt Graham (AUS) came out victorious against Ikuma Horishima (JPN) in the small final, wrapping up the season with his fifth top-3 spot in 2022/23.

In the dual moguls ranking Kingsbury finished the season with a score of 462 points for three wins and two runner-up spots in six competitions this season. Wallberg finished in second place with 374 points, while Horishima completed the top-3 in third with 331 points.

In the moguls overall ranking Kingsbury collected a combined score of 1002 points, with Horishima finishing behind in second with 660 points and Wallberg jumping into top-3 with 607 points.

As the moguls portion of the 2022/23 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup season came to a close, USA won the Dual Moguls Nations Cup for the best performing team across dual moguls competitions in 2022/23 season.

The action in Almaty continues tomorrow with the final aerials event of the season starting at 10:30 with women’s qualifications, followed by men’s qualifications at 12:45 and finals at 14:30 local time.

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