Moguls, Men

Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury had won gold in this event in 2018 and silvers in 2014 and 2022. He held the record for the most World Cup wins and had won the event four times at the World Championships. He had lost gold at Beijing 2022 to Sweden’s Walter Wallberg, who returned in an attempt to defend his title, but neither had dominated during the current World Cup season.

Qualifying round one was led by Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, bronze medalist in 2022, with Kingsbury third, also behind his teammate Julien Viel. In the second round of qualifying Australian Cooper Woods posted a mark that trailed only Horishima.

Woods led the first round in the final with 83.60, followed by Kingsbury at 82.56, with Woods’ teammate Matt Graham in third. The final round saw Woods and Kingsbury both improve, posting the same score of 83.71, but Woods took the gold medal on the tie-breaker, with higher turns scoring, 48.4 to 47.7. Horishima improved in the final round to repeat as the bronze medalist, as Wallberg finished fourth in both final runs, just missing the podium. With his silver medal Kingsbury became the first freestyle skier to win a medal in the same event at four consecutive Winter Olympics.