Bilodeau shines in dual mogul win, as Kearney reclaims yellow leader's bib

Hannah Kearney took back the yellow bib and her lead in the World Cup mogul standings with a duals victory in Are, Sweden Saturday. Her rebound comes a day after an uncharacteristic 14th place finish in single moguls Friday.

“There’s nothing like having a terrible competition and losing the yellow bib to light some fire underneath you,” said Kearney. “I didn’t sleep well last night because I was dwelling on the mistakes I made yesterday but sometimes in duals you just have to ski through the mistakes and I was able to do that today. That and my overall skiing was just a lot better.

“My final dual was against Yulia Galysheva and she’s known for being really good at duals because of her front flip on the bottom air. I had the guys watching and they told me I’ve got to be in front of her by a few bumps going into the bottom air if I want to win. I just listened to them.”

Meanwhile, Olympic Champion Alex Bilodeau won his second FIS World Cup event in as many days in a dual mogul event, beating teammate Mikael Kingsbury for the top spot on the podium.

In the men’s semi-final round of the head-to-head event, Bilodeau, who won yesterday’s single mogul event, edged Bradley Wilson of the US while Kingsbury beat Per Spett of Sweden, putting the two Canadian powerhouses against each. According to Kingsbury, it was the ninth time the two have faced each other in a dual mogul final, and the sixth time Rosemère, Que.’s Bilodeau prevailed.

Bilodeau said that he knew Kingsbury was his toughest competition because, “ Every time it’s super tight between us and could go either way.”

And, he knew that Kingsbury was fast, so being quick might not be the best strategy in an event where speed is only 25 per cent of the score (air and turns make up the rest of the points). So, Bilodeau said, “I knew I need to do something special to step out and grab the judges attention.”

Today, he maintained that the difference-maker was pulling out a double full (double twisting back flip) off the top air. “It’s a trick that’s never done in duals, and I didn’t even train it because I wanted to keep it a secret, but I’m pretty confident with that jump so it was a gamble to do it, but it paid off,” said the three-time dual mogul world champion.

The judges awarded Bilodeau 25 points to Kingsbury’s 10.

Kingsbury, who remains the overall points leader for moguls on the FIS circuit, was disappointed with the result, but happy with his performance. “Against [Bilodeau] it’s never easy, so I pushed to the max, and Alex for sure did a bigger air on the top, but I got him by half a second in speed.”

Bradley Wilson picked up third place for the Americans.

“My finals run was against Per Spett, the hometown hero,” said Wilson. “I saw him crash out of the corner of my eye so I knew I just needed to make it to the bottom. I competed a back full of the top and a back X off the bottom because it’s super fast on the bottom air. I came out and had fun today, that’s what I try and do every time and let my skiing do what I know it can. I had the same mindset yesterday I just pushed it a little too hard. I’ve got the same mindset going into World Cup finals next week, and hopefully I’ll be on the podium again there.”

Results
Are (SWE)
World Cup
Ladies’ Dual Moguls

Are (SWE)
World Cup
Men’s Dual Moguls