Canadian freestyle coach says moguls king Kingsbury races like a Formula One car

Mikael Kingsbury of Canada is comforted by his coach Michel Hamelin after a crash in the finals of the men's dual moguls freestyle ski world cup at Val Saint-Come, Que., on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. Kingsbury placed second. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

LIVIGNO — Michel Hamelin knows his moguls, having coached Alex Bilodeau before taking Mikaël Kingsbury under his wing.

Bilodeau, who retired in October 2014, won the moguls at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, becoming the first freestyle skier in any discipline to win two Olympic golds. He was also a three-time world champion in dual moguls, which makes its Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games.

Kingsbury is competing in his fourth Olympics, having won silver, gold, and silver at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 games, respectively.

Hamelin, a moguls coach on the Milan Cortina team, says the two freestyle stars are very different.

“Bilodeau was like a rally car. He could finish a race with a wheel missing,” Hamelin said. “And Mik is more like an F1 (Formula One car). He can adjust any little quarter-turn … make an adjustment.

“Bilodeau was a little bit more rough with the moguls. He broke more skis. A little bit more (using) his strength than touch. Both great athletes, but they used different techniques.”

Jennifer Heil, the Canadian chef de mission in Milan and a two-time Olympic moguls medallist, marvels at Kingsbury.

“Everybody wants to know what the secret sauce is, and he’s Mik, you know?” she said. “It’s almost like he doesn’t feel the challenges, and I don’t think that’s true.

“He does have his own adversity. He has had serious injuries where he’s still come back and won the season, so it’s not that he doesn’t have adversity. It’s not that he doesn’t have doubts like other athletes, but he is just so strong mentally, physically, emotionally, and so passionate about what he does that he can bring those things together. I don’t know how, but it is such a beauty to watch.”

Hamelin first met Kingsbury at a camp for young Quebec skiers in Whistler, B.C. One of four youngsters involved in a “super-simple” contest set up by Hamelin, Kingsbury made an immediate impression.

“He became super-precise, super-focused,” Hamelin recalled. “Right there, I knew he was different … I knew something was special about that kid.”

Many years and 100 World Cup wins later, Kingsbury still wears the lucky T-shirt that reads “It’s good to be the king.” He has worked it in competition since reaching his first World Cup podium in 2010.

Hamelin marvels at how Kingsbury can inspect a new course, and feel a jump, and immediately understand how it will play, even without skiing it.

“He’ll be like … ‘Remember Mike, in 2011 when we went to Kazakhstan the first time? I’m going to have to think about being a little more forward.’”

Hamelin says the better the moguls skier, the less the toll on the body. Get the timing and technique right, and the boots and skis can take a lot of the impact off the legs.

‘Timing of the absorption is the key. And Mik is the king of that," he said.

But for Hamelin, Kingsbury’s biggest edge is his love for the sport.

“He still has a lot of fun skiing … When he has his skis on, he’s still a kid. He’s a professional kid, but he’s still a kid. And now he’s a dad. But inside he’s a kid skiing.”

Born in August 2024, Kingsbury’s son Henrik is now part of the team, says Hamelin.

Kingsbury wants to just have fun on the hill, saying he’s a better skier when he just enjoys the ride rather than think about the outcome.

“I’ve won the Olympics. I’ll be Olympic champion for the rest of my life,” said the 33-year-old from Deux-Montagnes, Que. “Right now I’ve just got to look at it like I have the opportunity to do it again.”

The Canadian team held a pre-games camp in Val St-Come, Que., site of the Jan. 9-10 World Cup, where Kingsbury won the moguls for his 100th World Cup win. Kingsbury, who has been limiting competition due to a groin injury, skipped the dual moguls won by Canadian teammate Julien Viel.

Speaking before leaving for the games, Kingsbury said he was very happy with his return from injury.

“It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for some moments when I was skiing in pain. But at Val St-Come I was able to manage my injury very well … We’re getting close to 100 percent.”

The Quebec camp was on familiar ground for the Canadian athletes and allowed staff to modify the World Cup course into something resembling what they competed on last year in Livigno, site of the Olympic moguls.

Hamelin knows what to expect from the Olympic course builder.

“Usually, he does a course where the moguls are a bit tight,” Hamelin said. “Not necessarily tight in distance but tight laterally. Like, you can go pretty much straight and always have a mogul right in the face.

“It’s something that not all the courses have. Last year at the test event in Livigno, that’s what we had. And I tried to reproduce that here (in Quebec).”

Kingsbury finished runner-up to Japan’s Ikuma Horishima in the moguls at the March 2025 test event. The Canadian won the dual moguls the next day, with Horishima second.

At Val St-Come, Viel beat Horishima in the dual moguls final for his first World Cup win.

“It seems like Julien is ready to peak,” Hamelin said of the 24-year-old from Quebec City.

Kingsbury is the lone Olympic veteran on Canada’s seven-member moguls squad. But Hamelin notes Viel and Maia Schwinghammer just missed out on making the Beijing team and have had four years of high-level preparation.

Hamelin is using Kingsbury’s experience as a resource for the first-time Olympians.

Kingsbury says he has just told his teammates not to try to do more than what they normally do.

“They know what they’re capable of. We’re competing at the games against the same people they’re used to competing against. And just enjoy the moment … It goes by very quick.”

He remembers getting all his Canadian gear at the Athletes Village at the 2014 Games in Sochi.

“I felt like a little kid at Disney World,” he said. “And now I’m going to my fourth (Olympics), and I’m still very excited.”

The Milan Cortina Games are the first to offer dual moguls, which is head-to-head racing. Of Kingsbury’s 100 career World Cup wins, 37 came in dual moguls.

Judges score moguls on technique (accounting for 60 percent of the marks), aerial manoeuvres (20 percent) and speed (20 percent).

While the dual moguls is contested on the same course, there is a degree of unpredictability in racing against an opponent. A mediocre run can still be a win if the other racer crashes.

“Or you can do your best run ever, and the other guy does a better job than you,” he said. “It’s challenging. The duals, you have to be really, really intense and really consistent. And in singles, you need to be precise.”

Some racers go all out in duals, throwing caution to the wind in a do-or-die. Against Horishima, Viel showed that crossing the finish line first doesn’t translate into victory — winning with a slower but cleaner run.

Canadian Moguls/Dual Moguls Team

Laurianne Desmarais-Gilbert, Sainte-Adèle, Que.; Mikaël Kingsbury, Deux-Montagnes, Que.; Ashley Koehler, Lac-Beauport, Que.; Jessica Linton, Vancouver; Maia Schwinghammer, Saskatoon; Elliot Vaillancourt, Drummondville, Que.; Julien Viel, Quebec City.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 8, 2026

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press