Elliot Vaillancourt was waiting for Mikaël Kingsbury to report on the condition of the track before the super final of the Val-St-Côme World Cup mogul competition. The only problem: Kingsbury did not qualify. The good news? Vaillancourt saved Canadian honor by finishing second for the second time this season.
“I was supposed to have a report on the condition of the track and the moguls from Mik, because I always assume that Mik will make it to the super final,” said Vaillancourt at the foot of the Alexandre-Bilodeau track.
“Michel [Hamelin, the head coach of the Canadian team] told me: ‘We have no feedback’. If Michel is next to me and Mik is not there, something is going on. I was then told that there had been a fall.”
Kingsbury, who was ranked first in the world after seven straight podiums, including four victories since the beginning of the season, missed his landing at the first jump of his final run, depriving him of a place in the super final, where Vaillancourt ended up being the sole representative of the Canadian team.
“I’m a little disappointed. I misjudged my landing at the top,” explained Kingsbury. “It sucks, because I have high expectations and I get good results. I just got my worst result of the season at home. It’s a shame, but we have another chance [on Saturday].”
“When I realized that ‘Mister’ was not there and that there was no girl either, I felt very alone, it became very real,” Vaillancourt recounted. “I felt a certain pressure on my shoulders. But I quickly realized that I didn’t control any of it and I quickly managed to calm down. I managed the run quite well!”
Starting second to last, the 24-year-old skier offered the best run of the day so far, scoring 82.37 points from the judges, ensuring him at worst a silver medal.
Swede Walter Wallberg pushed him to the second step of the podium after a very high-level run, earning him 84.92 points.
“With Mik absent, I thought I could win. But when I saw the solid run from the Swede, I thought it would be for another time!”
However, this second podium after the one at Alpe d’Huez had a different flavor for Vaillancourt.
“To achieve this in front of parents and friends. To see my father crying behind the media, it’s crazy,” he said. “The crowd was cheering much louder for me than the French crowd, who had no idea who I was, with my number 56!”
Another Swede, Filip Gravenfors (77.70), completed the podium.
Kingsbury finally finished in 13th place. Louis-David Chalifoux, seventh, and Gabriel Dufresne, 12th, also reached the final. Julien Viel (23rd), Samuel Goodison (26th), Ryan Portello (29th), Sam Cordell (35th) did not manage to qualify. Joey Dubuc and Charles Beaulieu did not finish the course in qualifications.
In the World Cup standings, Kingsbury slips to second place in singles with 340 points, 10 less than the Japanese Ikuma Horishima, who finished fourth on Friday on the Alexandre-Bilodeau track. In the overall standings, Kingsbury is still first with 600 points, but Horishima has moved closer to 530, ahead of Wallberg (408) and Gravenfors (382).
Canadian women excluded
Among the women, no Canadian reached the super final. Maia Schwinghammer, second after qualifying, fell halfway through the course and finished in 15th place. Berkley Brown (eighth) and Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert (12th) also saw their work day end in the final.
The event was won by Australian and reigning Olympic champion Jakara Anthony (82.01), her seventh victory in eight races.
“We never get tired of it. It’s such a privilege to be in first place week after week,” said Anthony. “There are still a bunch of details that I am not satisfied with tonight. I’m a perfectionist.”
She beat American Jaelin Kauf (74.87) and Japanese Hinako Tomitaka (74.19).
Jessica Linton (17th) and Ashley Koehler (18th), the other two Canadians in the race, stopped in the qualifications.
Jakara obviously retains her yellow jerseys in singles and the overall standings, but now leads Kauf in singles, who moved up to second place ahead of Japanese Rino Yaganimoto in both standings. Schwinghammer maintained her 10th place overall.
The Val-St-Côme World Cup will continue on Saturday with the parallel moguls event.
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