Canadian moguls team dominates on home snow again with medal haul in Calgary

CALGARY – The Canadian moguls ski team vacuumed up the majority of medals on home snow for a second straight week Saturday.

In a near-duplication of the previous week’s performance in Val Saint-Come, Que., the host squad claimed five out of a possible six World Cup medals and Canadian women blanketed the podium in Calgary.

Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que., kept padding the all-time World Cup moguls victories record with his 31st. Teammate Philippe Dupuis of Quebec City was second for his first podium of the season and Sho Endo of Japan placed third.

After taking silver three consecutive years in Calgary, Montreal’s Chloe Dufour-Lapointe earned women’s gold ahead of sister Justine in second. Andi Naude of Penticton, B.C., was third to complete the women’s sweep.

“Five medals in two events in a row, back-to-back in Canada, that’s huge and hopefully it’s going to inspire and motivate kids all around the country to keep skiing,” Dupuis said.

With five Canadian women qualifying for a six-skier super final at Canada Olympic Park, the odds of the Maple Leaf blanketing the women’s podium again were good.

“Everybody is strong,” Chloe Dufour-Lapointe said. “We all want to be on top, so everybody needs to be on the edge every single race.”

Justine and Chloe finished one-two in Val Saint-Come with eldest sister Maxime finishing third for a sister sweep. Maxime placed sixth in Calgary behind Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City in fifth.

“This is amazing today to do another sweep,” Chloe said. “It’s not a sister sweep, but it’s a sweep and we’ll take this one.”

Laurent Dumais of Quebec City shared the podium with Kingsbury in Quebec with a bronze, but crashed in qualifying at COP.

Canada’s moguls team is traditionally deep with talent, but they stepped it up on this winter’s home stops on the World Cup circuit. The womens’ back-to-back podium sweeps were unprecedented in Canadian moguls history.

“Probably home-country advantage for sure helped, but the girls skied amazing today,” Kingsbury said. “Two sweeps in a row.”

“Being on the podium last week with Laurent and this week with Phil, it’s just awesome. It proves that we’re training the right way.”

The Canada Olympic Park course is usually icy, but warm weather prior to Saturday’s cooler temperatures made the track particularly slick this year.

“I went not super-safe, but pretty safe for my skiing to make sure I wasn’t making too many mistakes,” Kingsbury said. “I did the two toughest tricks of the competition (a back double full and a cork 1080), so it paid off at the end.”

Kingsbury and Dufour-Lapointe retained the yellow bibs worn by the season’s overall World Cup leaders. Kingsbury’s win was his sixth in as many years in Calgary. Chloe and Justine shared shared the podium at COP a fourth straight year.

“It’s a tradition,” Justine said. “I’m really proud of us, of me of my performance. It wasn’t easy. That course is really hard. You can’t fight that one because it’s going to win.”

The moguls team heads to Deer Valley, Utah, for their next World Cup event Saturday.