LIVIGNO, Italy – A major unrest among the gentleman magnates at the Olympic Games Milan Cortina was decided by a razor-thin margin. Actually hardly a margin.
Unknown Australian freestyle skier Cooper Woods took the gold medal from the sport’s most decorated skier, Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury, after both scored 83.71 points in Thursday’s final. The deciding factor for moguls is the “turns” score, a number judged by how neatly the skiers make their way through the bumps.
“It was close, a tiebreaker, unfortunately I’m the guy who’s not on the right side,” Kingsbury said. “But I worked very hard for this medal. I’m getting older, I’m 33, I had an injury in September. At one point it felt like it was impossible to be at that level again.”
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Turns make up 60% of a mogul’s score, with a racer’s two jumps and speed counting for 20% each. In this case, turns meant everything. Woods won that element with 48.40 to 47.70.
The Olympic gold went to 25-year-old Woods, who had achieved one podium finish in 51 World Cup events, and the silver went to Kingsbury, who last month became the first mogul skier to reach 100 victories on the sport’s top circuit.
“(I’m) speechless, super emotional, very proud. I had no expectations this morning. I just wanted to get out there and ski my runs and stay true to what I know I can achieve,” Woods said. “It’s not often you get one about Mikael, so I’ll take it when I can.”
This is Kingsbury’s third Olympic silver medal, adding to second-place finishes in 2014 and 2022. He broke through for gold at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
Woods cried with joy after realizing he had beaten moguls GOAT, as Australian fans cheered in the stands, with one holding up an inflatable wallaby.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan repeated as bronze medalist from four years ago.
On Wednesday, Americans took gold and silver among women magnates.
