Mont Gabriel hosts World Championships

There were fascinating duels between the world’s best skiers on January 14 and 15 as the World Cup of Freestyle Skiing was contested at Sainte-Adèle’s Mont-Gabriel.

parallel moguls

Spectators had a few surprises in store on Saturday during the women’s parallel moguls competition. Canadian Justine Dufour-Lapointe came up against champion Hannah Kearney in the finals, for the second time this year. The American won, however, following a fall by her rival. The Vancouver gold medalist had to face stiff competition in several of her runs. One of these was the race she won by half a second against Justine Dufour-Lapointe’s sister Maxime, who came in sixth. “It’s a personal victory for me,” said the Montreal native after her defeat. The bronze medal was won by Russian Ekaterina Slolyarova against Canadian Chelsea Henitiuk. 

winner Justine Dufour-Lapointe

In the men’s competition, Mikaël Kingsbury retained his title by easily defeating American Jeremy Cota, who took second place. Russian Andrey Volkov, classified 45th, gave an amazing performance and took home the bronze. But while Volkov had a great result, it was a different matter for Alexandre Bilodeau, returning to the circuit for the first time this season. A bad fall in the qualifying round ruled him out of the round before the eight finals.

Mikaël Kingsbury

Canadian Olivier Rochon, returning to the professional circuit after an absence of two years, was luckier than Bilodeau. In the jumps competition on the following day, he won silver for the first time in his career. Russian Pavel Krotov took home the victory, while Japanese competitor Naoya Tabara took third. In the women’s competition, Ukrainian Olga Volkova occupied the top step on the podium, ahead of American Emily Cook and Australian Laura Peel.

Olivier Rochon

Maxime Coursol, journalist