It's been a titanic weekend for Canadian moguls athletes on home snow.
Maia Schwinghammer soared to her first-ever World Cup triumph in Val St. Côme, Que. Judges awarded the Whistlerite 80.07 points on Friday as runner-up Jaelin Kauf (77.85) and third-place Olivia Giaccio (77.71) got on the board for Team USA.
"Wow, first [win] in front of a home crowd, I can’t believe it. I’m so happy," gushed Schwinghammer in a press release. "Just to be able to improve on my runs as I went throughout the day, I’m so happy with my skiing and how far we’ve come as a team.
"Coming out this morning I was definitely the most nervous I’ve been for a World Cup, I think, ever. It was my first time qualifying first as well. I was a little bit uneasy, definitely. I was able to calm those nerves and ski how I’ve been training."
That same day, Mikael Kingsbury emerged victorious on the men's side (87.42) and got to share the limelight with compatriot Julien Viel in second (80.56). Finnish athlete Olli Penttala rounded out the top three (78.28).
"I’m super stoked about my skiing tonight and what a night to be a Canadian," Kingsbury told reporters. "It feels amazing, and it’s pretty silent up there so the crowd is the only thing you can hear. When you’re dropping last at Val St. Côme, it’s quite special."
The former Olympic champion wasn't done there. He won dual moguls on Saturday for an unprecedented 96th World Cup gold medal, reinforcing his status as history's most dominant moguls skier. Benjamin Cavet of France and American Nick Page took silver and bronze respectively.
Kingsbury's fourth straight win (and sixth in seven events) gets him to 712 overall points: 229 ahead of his closest opponent Cavet.
Schwinghammer wound up sixth in the dual discipline and remains third in the overall ranking. Kauf, Anastassiya Gorodko and Perrine Laffont podiumed in that order.
Full results from Val St. Côme are viewable here.
