Canada's Kingsbury claims 88th World Cup title but falls short of 25th Crystal Globe

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Canadian freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury captured his 88th World Cup title with an individual moguls victory on Friday, but fell short of securing his 25th career Crystal Globe.

Kingsbury, of Deux-Montagnes, Que., claimed his fifth win of the season in individual moguls with a score of 84.89 in the super final, defeating Japanese skier Ikuma Horishima (83.48) by 1.41 points. Australian skier Matt Graham (80.81) finished third.

Horishima finished the season with a total of 610 points, 10 more than Kingsbury, to win the Crystal Globe.

The 31-year-old Canadian needed Horishima to finish third or worse to have had a shot at surpassing his Japanese rival in the season’s final race.

"I managed what I could manage, I controlled what I could control," Kingsbury said after what he described as a "great day."

"I knew it was going to be really tough. He was skiing to win, but he was also skiing not to make mistakes."

Kingsbury said he managed to execute his plan for the event but gave credit to Horishima for managing to "keep his cool to secure the silver."

"Sure, I saw it coming, but at the same time, I controlled what I could control, and that was to deliver the best performance I could. After that, it's in the hands of the judges, and it was really tight," Kingsbury said.

Kingsbury still leads the overall World Cup dual moguls standings, as well as the combined rankings for moguls and dual moguls.

The World Cup in Almaty continues Saturday with the season's second-to-last dual moguls competition.

"It's big day for me tomorrow (Saturday)," Kingsbury said. "I still have some real skiing to do."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2024.