For the second straight year, Canadian Olympic gold medalist Mikael Kingsbury of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec has won the Lionel Conacher Award, which is presented to the Canadian male athlete of the year as voted on by the Canadian Press. It was the second straight year that Kingsbury received the honour. In 2018, Kingsbury won the award after winning the gold medal in men’s moguls at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
Kingsbury’s greatest achievement came in the 2019 World Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding World Championships in Deer Valley, Utah. Kingsbury became only the second mogulist ever to win a gold medal in men’s moguls and men’s dual moguls at a single world championship. The first was mogulist to accomplish that feat was Ikuma Horishima of Japan, who won both events at the 2017 World Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain.
In 2019, Kingsbury won the World Cup men’s moguls standings with 825 points. He beat Horishima by 308 points, as Horishima had 517 points.
Kingsbury’s World Cup moguls wins in 2019 came in Calgary, Alberta on January 12, in Mont Tremblant, Quebec on January 26, in Tazawako, Japan on February 23 and Ruka, Finland on December 7. Kingsbury, who also won the silver medal in men’s moguls at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi,will be a strong medal contender for Canada at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
