LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — A big upset in men's moguls at the Milan Cortina Olympics was decided by a razor-thin margin. Hardly a margin at all, really.
Unheralded Australian freestyle skier Cooper Woods snatched the gold medal away from the sport's most decorated skier, Mikael Kingsbury of Canada, after both scored 83.71 points in Thursday's final. The tiebreaker in moguls is the “turns” score, a mark judges base on how cleanly the skiers moved their way through the bumps.
“It was close, a tiebreak, unfortunately I’m the guy not on the good side of it,” Kingsbury said. ”But I’ve worked very hard for this medal. I’m getting older, I’m 33, I had an injury in September. At some point it felt like it was impossible to be back at that level.”
Turns make up 60% of a moguls score — with the two jumps and a racer's speed counting for 20% each. In this case, turns meant everything. Woods won that element 48.40 to 47.70.
That's how the Olympic gold ended up in the hands of the 25-year-old Woods, who had managed one podium finish in 51 World Cup events, and silver ended up with Kingsbury, who last month became the first moguls skier to amass 100 wins on the sport's top circuit.
“(I’m) speechless, super emotional, very proud. I didn’t have any expectations this morning. I just wanted to go out and ski my runs and stay true to what I know I can achieve,” Woods said. “It’s not often that you get one over 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 in at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Woods wept with joy after as he realized his achievement of beating the moguls GOAT while Aussie fans cheered in the stands, with one holding up an inflatable wallaby.
Ikuma Horishima of Japan repeated as the bronze medalist from four years ago.
On Wednesday, Americans took gold and silver in women's moguls.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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