Kauf Sweeps Deer Valley, Giaccio Third
Olympic silver medalist Jaelin Kauf made it a clean sweep at Deer Valley, winning the dual moguls on Saturday, Feb. 8, two days after she won the moguls at the Intermountain Health Freestyle International presented by Stifel. Olivia Giaccio was also on the podium in third.
The snow continued to fall for the third straight night, but it didn’t deter the U.S. athletes, who showed off in front of their hometown of Park City. The crowd came in droves, packing in thousands of screaming fans to cheer on the home team Stifel U.S. Ski Team.
In her 100th World Cup start, Kauf picked off each competitor one after another and eventually facing World Cup individual overall leader Perinne Laffont in the big final to take the win. Laffont finished second.
“It’s been incredible, an absolute dream,” said Kauf. “I always know it’s going to be a tough one against Perinne… I was just saying, leave it all out there. Don’t leave anything left in the tank and don’t let them take anything away from your run. I definitely left it all out there!”
Giaccio lost to Kauf in the semifinals, which sent her to the small final. She stepped on the podium over teammate Tess Johnson, who finished fourth. It’s Giaccio’s first podium in duals this season; she has four podiums in individual moguls.
Kasey Hogg also had a stellar day, taking sixth place. Kylie Kariotis was 14th.
Nick Page was the top Stifel U.S. Ski Team athlete on the men’s side, taking eighth place. Charlie Mickel also nailed the top 10 in 10th place. Dylan Walczyk was 14th and Asher Michel 16th.
On the men’s side, Ikuma Horishma of Japan took the win, with Mikael Kingsbury of Canada in second place and Pavel Kolmakov of Kazakhstan in third.
Watch the recap of the dual moguls on 5:30 a.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. Next up, the Stifel U.S. Freestyle Ski Team heads to China for a moguls, dual moguls and aerials World Cup.
HOW TO WATCH
All times in ET
Sunday, Feb. 9
2:00 p.m. – women’s and men’s dual moguls (tape delay) – NBC/Peacock
