Nick Page ends longest drought in U.S. men’s moguls history

By OlympicTalkDec 10, 2022, 10:40 AM EST

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Olympian Nick Page became the first U.S. male moguls skier to win a World Cup in six years, ending the longest men’s drought in American history.

Page, a 20-year-old who was fifth at February’s Olympics, earned his first World Cup victory by tallying 81.02 points in his last run to beat the last two Olympic gold medalists — Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury and Swede Walter Wallberg — in Idre Fjäll, Sweden on Saturday.

Page became the first U.S. man to win a World Cup moguls event since Brad Wilson in 2016. Wilson’s brother, Bryon, won the last U.S. Olympic men’s moguls medal (bronze) in 2010.

Page was inspired to become a moguls skier while watching Bryon Wilson win his medal, then live streamed the 2014 Olympic event during a seventh-grade class and attended the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

Page, a Park City, Utah, native, also ended a run of 15 consecutive World Cup moguls or dual moguls events won by Kingsbury or Japan’s Ikuma Horishima dating to the start of 2021.

NBC Olympic research contributed to this report.

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The ridiculous run that got Nick Page FIRST on today’s podium in Idre Fjall🙌 pic.twitter.com/U2IipVCaho

— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) December 10, 2022

Olympic champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe leaves moguls for another skiing discipline

By OlympicTalkDec 6, 2022, 11:41 AM EST

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Justine Dufour-Lapointe, the 2014 Olympic moguls champion, is leaving the event to compete in freeriding, a non-Olympic skiing discipline.

“After three Olympic cycles and 12 years on the World Cup circuit, I felt that I needed to find a new source of motivation and had to push my limits even more so I can reach my full potential as a skier,” the 28-year-old Montreal native said in a social media video, according to a translation from French. “Today, I am starting a new chapter in my career. … I want to perfect myself in another discipline. I want to connect with the mountain differently. Above all, I want to get out of my comfort zone in a way I’ve never done before.”

Dufour-Lapointe said she will compete on the Freeride World Tour, a series of judged competitions described as:

There‘s a start gate at the summit and a finish gate at the bottom. That’s it. Best run down wins. It truly is that simple. Think skiers and snowboarders choosing impossible-looking lines through cornices and cliff-faces and nasty couloirs. Think progressive: big jumps, mach-speed turns and full-on attack. Think entertaining.

Dufour-Lapointe has retired from moguls skiing, according to a Freeride World Tour press release, though she did not explicitly say that in social media posts Tuesday.

At the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, Dufour-Lapointe denied American Hannah Kearney‘s bid to become the first freestyle skier to repeat as Olympic champion. Older sister Chloé took silver in a Canadian one-two.

Dufour-Lapointe also won the world title in 2015, then Olympic silver in 2018 behind Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont.

Chloé announced her retirement in September. A third Dufour-Lapointe Olympic moguls skier, Maxime, retired in 2018.

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A post shared by Justine Dufour-Lapointe (@justinedufourlapointe)

Mikaël Kingsbury, freestyle skiing legend, says ‘it’s probably my last four years’

By OlympicTalkNov 10, 2022, 12:52 PM EST

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Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury, the most decorated moguls skier in World Cup history, may be embarking on his fourth and final Olympic cycle.

“Things are different. I’m older. I know it’s probably my last four years,” Kingsbury, 30, said, according to the Canadian Press. “I’ve accomplished so much, very proud of it. Still want to win.”

Kingsbury, the Olympic silver medalist in 2014 and gold medalist in 2018, went into the Olympics in February as one of the biggest favorites across the Winter Games. Then he was shockingly relegated to silver by Swede Walter Wallberg.

He responded by winning all three post-Olympic World Cups in March, extending his moguls record to 74 victories for his career, and earning a record-extending 10th World Cup season title.

Kingsbury and other moguls skiers have something new to look forward to for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games — the addition of a second medal event, dual moguls, to the program.

Kingsbury is more dominant in dual moguls, where two skiers compete side-by-side, than in the traditional event. He won all six of his World Cup dual moguls starts dating to March 2020 and 16 of his 18 World Cup starts dating to February 2016, plus the last two world championships.

But can he maintain his success into his 30s against younger skiers like Wallberg, who is 22? Kingsbury will be 33 years old come the next Winter Games and older than any previous Olympic moguls medalist (by two days), according to Olympedia.org.

“Back in the day I could go skiing and not stretch,” Kingsbury said, according to the Canadian Press. “My body was recovering very fast. I could fall and still be OK the next day.

“For sure, I’ve still got to still take risks because you cannot accomplish much if you don’t take risks. I try to calculate, do a bit less volume, try to focus on quality, take my time to going back to pushing 100 percent on my skis, just doing things with a bit more of a purpose and be intelligent with what I do.”

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