Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont and Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury won the moguls at the freestyle skiing world championships, consolidating favorite status to repeat as Olympic gold medalists next year.
Laffont, who in PyeongChang became the youngest Olympic freestyle skiing champion ever at 19, prevailed with an 82.11-point last run in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Monday. She beat defending world champion Yuliya Galysheva of Kazakhstan by 2.59 points.
Russian Anastasiya Smirnova took bronze. The top American was Kai Owens in sixth.
Laffont had the fastest super final run, earned the most air points and had the best turns of the field. She picked up the last major title missing from her resume, extending her win streak to 11 standard moguls competitions dating to the start of the 2019-20 season.
Kingsbury, the record 65-time World Cup moguls winner with nine consecutive freestyle skiing World Cup overall titles, repeated as men’s world champion after coming back from fracturing the T4 and T5 vertebrae in his back last autumn.
The 28-year-old Quebecois also had the best scores for time, air and turns (87.36 points total), distancing silver medalist Ben Cavet of France by 4.93 points. Kazakhstan’s Pavel Kolmakov took bronze. The top American was Dylan Walczyk in 10th.
Kingsbury’s third world title in the event tied the record held by Frenchman Edgar Grospiron, the first Olympic men’s moguls gold medalist in 1992.
In 44 top-level standard moguls events dating to 2014, Kingsbury has 32 wins, nine runners-up and three finishes worse than second.
Worlds continue Tuesday with dual moguls. A TV and live stream schedule is here.
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