Johnson Eighth in Challenging Day For U.S. Moguls Team
Under heavy winds and rain, it was a tough day on Fitz’s Freefall at WinSport Canada Olympic Park for the U.S. at the FIS World Cup moguls in Calgary, Alberta. Tess Johnson posted the top American finish with an eighth place.
France’s Perrine Laffont earned her fifth-straight World Cup victory, Kazakhstan’s Yuliya Galysheva claimed second and Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe rounded out the podium in third.
Tess, who has been working on progressing her run, skied her new trick package with a heli mute grab on top and her classic back x on bottom air. "Today was a super fun day of skiing and I was able to put down my best run so far with my new trick, heli mute," said Tess. "It’s been challenging throwing a new trick in comp, but I’ve gotten a little better every event and I can feel a major breakthrough coming. And I’m so excited to continue this progress at the best event of all time in Deer Valley next week!"
In her second career World Cup start, Kai Owens skied a beautiful top cork and big bottom x to smash into the top-10 with a tenth place finish. “In her second World Cup start to get a top ten, hallelujah, she did awesome,” said Head Moguls Coach Matt Gnoza. “It was a nice rookie statement. We haven’t had really someone since Jaelin making that kind of statement right away.”
"I am super excited with my performance, and I had an amazing time skiing the course, it was super fun!" said Kai. "I was happy with my skiing, and overall execution."
Jaelin Kauf finished 14th. She performed her new top cork to bottom x but a slight bobble in the middle moguls section kept her out of the superfinal. Hannah Soar just missed finals with a 17th place.
On the men’s side Canada’s own Mikael Kingsbury wowed the Canadian home crowd with his 60th career World Cup victory. Sweden’s Walter Wallberg finished second and Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Reikherd finished third.
Brad Wilson finished 11th, leading five American men into the points: Dylan Walcyzk (16), Nick Page (21), Tom Rowley (26) and Alex Lewis (27). “This is Brad’s second start this year,” said Matt. “To go from 17th last week to make finals this week, he had a nice run to continue to carry momentum into Deer Valley, which is a course that he likes.”
The moguls World Cup tour heads next to Deer Valley Resort for the 2020 Intermountain Healthcare Freestyle International FIS Ski World Cup Feb. 6-8.
Results
Women’s moguls
Men’s moguls
