Canadian moguls legend Mikaël Kingsbury added to his career medal haul by the skin of his teeth at home at Quebec's Mont Tremblant on Jan. 25.
Kingsbury took his 58th career win, besting Japan's Ikuma Horishima by just 0.2 points, while France's Benjamin Cavet was third.
"As the day progressed I felt more confident and I was able to open the extra gear in the final," Kingsbury said in a release, noting the qualifying conditions were challenging.
Other Canadians included: Gabriel Dufresne in 12th; Pemberton's Brenden Kelly in 18th; Kerrian Chunlaud in 21st; Robbie Andison in 23rd; Jordan Kober in 28th; Ryan Portello in 33rd; Brayden Kuroda in 34th; Laurent Dumais in 48th; and Elliot Vaillancourt in 49th.
On the women's side, Justine Dufour-Lapointe was the top Canadian in fifth, 1.59 points off the podium and 3.55 points back of champion Perrine Laffont of France. Kazakhstan's Yulia Galysheva took second and Russia's Anastasia Smirnova placed third.
Rounding out the Canadian contingent were: Valerie Gilbert in eighth; Berkley Brown in 16th; Chloe Dufour-Lapointe in 17th; Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert in 19th; and Freestyle Whistler alum Maia Schwinghammer in 30th.
Thompson hits podium in Sweden
Whistler ski-cross racer Marielle Thompson hit her fourth podium of the FIS World Cup season in Idre Fjäll, Sweden on Jan. 26.
Thompson earned a third-place finish, trailing winner Sandra Naeslund of Sweden and Fanny Smith of Switzerland. Brittany Phelan wrapped up the big final in fourth while Abby McEwen was 13th.
"This track is a lot of fun, so many big jumps and features. You really need to nail the rhythm on the bottom section, which I did on most of my runs. In the final I just got stuck behind and didn't really have anywhere to go. Having watched Ryan (Regez) win yesterday from so far behind I was thinking 'there's a chance,'" Thompson said in a release. "I made sure to do everything I needed to do and I'm happy with third."
In Jan. 25 action, Phelan hit the podium in third, while Thompson was fourth. Atop the podium was Smith, with Naeslund claiming second. McEwen, meanwhile took ninth.
The Canadian men earned second place on both days, as Brady Leman was runner-up on Jan. 25, sandwiched between winner Ryan Regez of Switzerland and Francois Place of France. Kevin Drury took eighth while Zach Belczyk was 39th and Chris Del Bosco placed 47th.
On Jan. 26, Drury was second to winner Daniel Bohnacker of Germany with Regez placing third and Leman fourth. Kristofor Mahler popped up in 15th, while Del Bosco took 38th and Belczyk was 41st.
WMSC grads crack Kitzbuhel top-30
The downhill in Kitzbuhel, Austria is circled on speed demons' calendars well in advance of the season, and two Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) grads made it worth their while this year.
In this year's race, held on Jan. 25, two WMSC alums slipped into the top 30, with top Canadian Cameron Alexander and Brodie Seger taking 27th and 29th, respectively. Alexander came in 2.01 seconds behind champion Matthias Mayer of Austria, who held off fellow Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr and Switzerland's Beat Feuz.
As well, Jeffrey Read took 33rd, WMSC grad James Crawford was 39th and Ben Thomsen placed 42nd.
Crawford claimed Canada's highest result in the super-G on Jan. 24, claiming a 24th-place showing, 1.73 seconds off the pace set by winner Kjetil Jansrud of Norway. Fellow Norwegian Aleksandr Aamodt Kilde took second while Mayer was third. Seger took 31st while Thomsen ended up 46th.
In the weekend-wrapping slalom on Jan. 26, Erik Read was the lone Canadian to complete two runs, with his 25th-place finish putting him 8.67 seconds back of winner Daniel Yule of Switzerland. Austria's Marco Schwartz and France's Clement Noel rounded out the podium in second and third, respectively.
The Canadian women, meanwhile, hit the slopes in Bansko, Bulgaria on the weekend with Marie-Michele Gagnon as the lone representative.
Gagnon posted her best result early on, taking 13th in the weekend-opening downhill on Jan. 24. Gagnon was 2.06 seconds back of winner Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, who emerged ahead of Italy's Federica Brignone and Switzerland's Joana Haehlen for top spot.
In the Jan. 25 downhill, Gagnon slipped to 27th, 2.44 seconds back of winner Elena Curtoni, who led an Italian podium sweep with Marta Bassino in second and Brignone in third.
Lastly, Gagnon's 25th in the Jan. 26 super-G left her 3.08 seconds back of Shiffrin, again on top. Bassino took another second while Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami placed third.
Grondin defends Canadian turf at Big White
Canadian snowboard-cross racer Eliot Grondin hit the podium on home soil in FIS World Cup action at Big White on Jan. 25.
Grondin boarded to a second-place finish behind Italian Omar Visentin, while American Alex Deibold placed third. Fellow Canadian Kevin Hill came in eighth while Evan Bichon was 38th, Liam Moffatt took 39th, Anthony Gervais-Marcoux placed 43rd and Colby Graham wound up 47th.
In the Jan. 26 race, Grondin was still the top Canadian, though he slipped to ninth. Italian Lorenzo Sommariva earned the win over Austria's Jakob Dusek and American Senna Leith. Meanwhile, Hill was 14th, Moffatt took 41st, Bichon placed 43rd and Gervais-Marcoux and Graham wrapped up the weekend in 48th and 49th, respectively.
As for the women, Meryeta Odine took back-to-back 10th-place finishes as the top Canadian on both days.
On Jan. 25, Italy's Michela Moioli topped Australia's Belle Brockhoff and Italy's Raffaella Brutto for the win. Tess Critchlow took 17th while Whistler's Zoe Bergermann was 18th, Carle Brenneman earned 21st, Audrey McManiman placed 22nd and Whistler's Haili Moyer finished 26th.
On Jan. 26, Brockhoff edged out Moioli for the win while American Faye Gulini was third. Bergermann, Critchlow and Brenneman were back-to-back-to-back in 19th through 21st, respectively, while McManiman and Moyer wound up 25th and 27th, in order.
Jepsen earns another medal in Slovenia
Whistler Mountain Ski Club grad Mollie Jepsen hit the International Paralympic Committee Para-Alpine World Cup podium once again. After taking home four medals in her first stop of the season in Switzerland, Jepsen nabbed another in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, earning silver in the first of three giant slaloms on Jan. 20. She proceeded to take fifth in the closing event on Jan. 22.
Legault wins at Sun Peaks
Whistler Valley Snowboard Club member Jacob Legault came away with a North American Cup win at Sun Peaks on Jan. 15.
The 16-year-old slopestyler posted a best run of 93.25 to hold off fellow Canadians Michael Modesti (90.5) and Cameron Spalding (89.25). Also making the final were: Jadyn Chomlack (fifth); Keenan Demchuk (seventh); Truth Smith (ninth); and Liam Stevens (12th).
On the women's side, Maggie Crompton's 83.25 landed her just off the podium in fourth while Jackie Carlson (fifth), Ge Rong (sixth) and Bailey Birkkjaer (11th) all made the final.
Carlson and Chomlack found their way onto the big air podium on Jan. 16, though.
In the women's contest, Carlson scored a two-run score of 166 to finish second behind American Kaitlyn Adams' 177. Crompton finished fourth with a 158.5, less than four points out of third.
On the men's side, Chomlack posted a 172.25 to place as the runner-up to American Dave Retzlaff's 186. Teammates Finn Finestone and Lane Weaver also made the finals, placing fifth and eighth, respectively.
WMSC tops Janyk Cup
The Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) U12 club captured the Janyk Cup at home on Jan. 19.
With 70 athletes from the club, Cypress Mountain, Mount Seymour and Grouse Mountain Tyee lining up in warm conditions, the locals held on to the trophy, named for longtime club volunteer Andree Janyk.
The winners were determined by calculating the combined times in a pair of giant slalom races, with Hannah Neeves winning the women's event and Kingsley Parkhill taking the men's title.
In the first GS race, WMSC swept the 2008 men's podium with Parkhill leading Dreas Gibbons and Marek Novak, while Parkhill finished ahead of Gibbons and Graydyn Swanson in the second. As for the 2009 division, Luka Buchheister won both while Blake Thornhill was third in both.
On the women's side, WMSC swept the 2008 podiums with Hannah Neeves winning over her sister Sophie Neeves and Alexa Ferguson in both. In the first 2009 contest, Maggie Cormack was second and Maia Harriman placed second, while in the second, Cormack took third.
In dual "glalom" action, in 2008 girls, Hannah Neeves topped sister Sophie and Maika Lennox-King, while for 2009s, Cormack placed third. As for the boys, Parkhill led a 2008 men's podium sweep with Dominic Reid and Gibbons, while in the 2009 men's category, Buchheister earned the win.
The day before, roughly 140 racers from the same clubs competed in the Nancy Greene Skills event. For the first time ever, the overall results for boys and girls were combined in the three race categories.
In the dual glalom, Parkhill snagged the 2008 victory while Reid placed third. As for the start and skate, Lennox-King snagged third among 2008 racers.
Lastly, in the tuck and skate, Gibbons and Parkhill made the 2008 podium in second and third, respectively, while Buchheister was second in the 2009 contest.
Kripps nabs pair of podiums
Canadian bobsleigh pilot Justin Kripps hit the podium twice in BMW IBSF World Cup action at Konigssee, Germany on the weekend.
Kripps and brakeman Cameron Stones started with a second-place finish in the two-man race on Jan. 25, sliding in 0.51 seconds back of winners Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany while another German sled, Nico Walther and Malte Schwenzfeier took third.
The next day, Kripps, Benjamin Coakwell, Ryan Sommer and Stones slid into third in the four-man race behind two German sleds, the winning crew piloted by Friedrich and the runners-up led by Johannes Lochner.
The Canadian women, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on a medal as Christine de Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski took fourth, 0.06 seconds out of third and 0.15 seconds back of winners Kaillie Humphries and Sylvia Hoffmann of the United States. Germans rounded out the podium, with Laura Nolte and Erline Nolte in second and Stephanie Schneider and Ann-Christin Stack in third.
Canada's top skeleton athlete also sat fourth as Mirela Rahneva finished 0.26 seconds out of the medals and 0.67 seconds back of champion Tina Hermann of Germany. Jacqueline Loelling, also of Germany, placed second while Russia's Elena Nikitina took third. North Vancouver's Jane Channell wound up 15th while Madison Charney was 21st.
Lastly, in men's action, Kevin Boyer was the top Canadian in 17th while Kyle Murray wound up 28th. At the top of the table, Russia's Alexander Tretiakov edged out South Korea's Sungbin Yun and Germany's Felix Keisinger.
Toutant tops at Laax
Canadian snowboarder Sebastien Toutant claimed top spot in slopestyle in FIS World Cup action in Laax, Switzerland on Jan. 15. Toutant's 87.25 held off Americans Redmond Gerard (85.45) and Justus Henkes (82.33) for the win.
"I have been coming here for so many years and I'm really proud I finally made it to the top. It is my first contest in 2020 and it is just amazing to win here in LAAX...I took a big crash in practice and was lucky enough to ride the final and land the winning run," Toutant said in a release.
Other Canadians included Michael Ciccarelli in 13th, Francis Jobin in 22nd and Nicolas LaFramboise in 48th.
On the women's side, Laurie Blouin was the top Canadian in sixth as American Julia Marino held off Japan's Reira Iwabuchi and Great Britain's Katie Ormerod for the win. Sommer Gendron took seventh and Brooke Voigt was ninth.
Canada had less representation in the Jan. 18 halfpipe, however, as Braeden Adams and Shawn Fair placed 21st and 22nd, respectively, in the men's contest. Australia's Scotty James held off Japan's Yuto Totsuka and American Taylor Gold for the win.
No Canadian women took part. Spain's Queralt Castellet topped Chinese challengers Xuetong Cai and Jiayu Liu for the victory.
In the following weekend's event at Seiseralm, Italy, Voigt hit the podium with a 68.66 behind Australia's Tess Coady (73.48) and Ormerod (72.11). Gendron, meanwhile, took eighth and Baily McDonald was 15th.
As for the men, Jobin was the top Canadian in 11th with a 70.63. Russia's Vlad Khadarin (85.25) scored the victory over two Japanese competitors, Ruki Tobita (83.81) and Hiroaki Kunitake (79.75). Other Canucks were LaFramboise in 19th, Carter Jarvis in 25th, and John MacDougall in 42nd.
