THE CANADIAN PRESS
ARE, Sweden — Canada’s Alexandre Bilodeau is on quite a roll.
The Olympic champion won the men’s dual moguls Saturday at a World Cup freestyle ski event. On Friday, the Montreal native capture the moguls competition.
He defeated moguls World Cup leader Guilbaut Colas of France on Saturday to move into second spot in the overall standings behind Colas heading into next weekend’s World Cup finale in Norway.
However, Bilodeau is taking a philosophical approach regarding overtaking Colas for the overall title. Colas has 741 points while Bilodeau has 679.
"The crystal globe is still possible but I mean I’ve really got no control over it," he said. "If Guilbaut wins his first dual next week, it’s done for me even if I win the event.
"Like I said, I pretty much have no control over it and so I’ll just try my best. If Guilbaut misses his dual, then fine but if not, then I wish him the best."
Bilodeau said he came into this weekend’s in a good frame of mind mentally despite having to deal with heel and back pain.
"When I’m going down the hill, no, it doesn’t bother me," he said. "When I’m at the bottom (of the hill), obviously it does hurt a little bit.
"It’s part of the sport. Everyone has a little thing here and there. Mentally I feel great and my skiing is becoming more and more consistent and I feel great on my skis and my technique is getting a lot better. And I think I have confidence at the top of the course and that’s a big part of it."
Once again, Bilodeau anchored a solid showing by the Canadian team.
In all, six Canadians earned spots in the 16-person men’s final. Mikael Kingsbury of Deux Montagnes, Que., finished fourth behind bronze medallist Patrick Deneen of the U.S. while Simon Pouliot Cavanagh of Quebec City was fifth. Cedric Rochon of St. Sauveur, Que., was ninth, Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que., finished 12th while Eddie Hicks of Langley, B.C., was 13th.
Meanwhile in the women’s event, Montreal’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Jennifer Heil of Spruce Grove, Alta., captured silver and bronze medals, respectively.
"It’s good to see all those people always performing and pushing me every day," Bilodeau said. "It has been amazing."
Dufour-Lapointe, 16, said she fell behind American Hannah Kearney early in the final and simply couldn’t make it up.
"I was a little disappointed about my first jump and didn’t have enough time to reach her," Dufour-Lapointe said. "But it’s fine, I think there will be another time to have another dual with her."
And for Dufour-Lapointe, a silver medal was a very nice consolation prize.
"I came in having already had a gold and bronze medal so now I have every colour," she said with a chuckle.
Dufour-Lapointe’s older sister, Chloe, qualified in first before noticing prior to the final she had a broken ski and had to make an emergency change at the top of the course. She ended up finishing ninth while Audrey Robichaud of Quebec City, Que., was 10th and Chelsea Henitiuk of Spruce Grove ended up 16th.
Kearney tops the overall standings with 809 points. Heil is second with 552 while Justine Dufour-Lapointe is third with 397.
Heil, 27, is in her final season of competition and said despite still being a contender on the World Cup circuit she’s not about to change her mind.
"No, that decision is done," she said. "It was such a wonderful day to be out there, I love competition and I know how lucky I am to be doing it and experiencing it but I’m also excited about the next chapter and the new challenges that are ahead."
Justine Dufour-Lapointe beat Heil, the defending world champion in single and dual moguls in the semifinals after Heil barged the start gate and threw herself off-balance. Heil secured the bronze after beating Russia’s Regina Rakhimova in the small final.
And while this might be her final season of competition, Heil said it’s important she continue to compete and push herself.
"My goal every race is to put myself in a position to stand on top of the podium and prepare myself to do that," she said. "That’s the only way I know how to ski and is why I find it fun to continually push my limits and be pushed, there’s a lot of great competition out here.
"Hannah is having an amazing World Cup season and it’s so great to see Justine on the podium again, she’s really the future of our sport. It’s really nice for me to be on the podium with her and I will definitely be following her career."