Industry News
The 2023/24 Moguls FIS Freestyle World Cup season kicked off on Saturday, December 2, 2023, in Ruka, Finland. Australia’s Jakara Anthony and Japan’s Ikuma Hiroshima won the women’s and men’s single moguls races, securing early-season leads with the yellow leaders’ bibs.
Anthony’s key rivals France’s Perrine Laffont and Japan’s Anri Kawamura were absent. Laffont announced in a press release last month that the 25-year-old was taking a year off from competing. 18-year-old Kawamura tore her meniscus and MCL in July this year. This left only the Americans as toughest competitors for 25-year-old Anthony.
The American moguls women have been showing outstanding performances last season and were off to an amazing start, with Elizabeth Lemley in second place and Olivia Giaccio in third place. This marks Lemley’s fourth career World Cup podium. The 17-year-old Vail resident won ‘Rookie of the Year’ last year and won the 2022 Junior World Championships.
The U.S. haul however did not stop with the podium but continued into the top 10, with six American women in the top finishers. Hannah Soar came fourth, Jaelin Kauf was fifth, and Ali Macuga as tenth, while Kai Owens finished in 19th place. The depth in the U.S. women’s moguls team is phenomenal and will certainly offer stiff competition for the other international athletes.
The men’s competition was won by Japan’s Ikuma Horishima who surpassed the top favorite Mikael Kingsbury. This marks Horishima’s 15th career World Cup victory. Second place went to Sweden’s Walter Wallberg. Wallberg is the 2022 Olympic Champion. Third place went to Mikael ‘the King’ Kingsbury, who made some small mistakes on in his run, causing deductions and pushing his score below 80 — a spot the six-time World Champion is certainly not used to. Jakara Anthony and Mikael Kingsbury were the 22/23 World Cup Mogul champions, with Kingsbury also taking home the Duals and Overall Mogul Crystal Globe.
The American men showed a strong performance with three top-20 finishes. Dylan Walczyk qualified for the first finals and finished in overall 13th. Cole MacDonald narrowly missed out on the finals in 17th place. Landon Wendler finished 19th and Dylan Marcellini in 25th while Nick Page, who was ranked fifth in the 22/23 World Cup season only came 37th after a few mistakes on his run.
The moguls World Cup tour now moves to Idre, Sweden, with events including moguls and dual moguls scheduled for the new World Cup course on December 8-9, 2023.
