Fresh off the podium from his gold-medal performance at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and his best freestyle skiing season ever, Mikael Kingsbury is glad to be back on Canadian soil. After following in the footsteps of other great French-Canadian skiers, Kingsbury is hoping to continue to grow the sport in Canada while being motivated by the overwhelming support he’s received in the leadup, during, and after the Games.
I caught up with Kingsbury to learn about the pressure he felt in South Korea and the pressure he is now putting on himself back in Canada.
SN: What has the reception been like being back in Canada after a successful Olympic Games?
Kingsbury: First, it’s nice to be back home in Montreal and just being back home in Canada in general. I’ve been two months on the road with the Games and all the emotion over there, coming back and realizing what I’ve done over there it’s kind of cool being back and walking in the street and random people come up to meet and congratulate me and say they inspire me. I’m very proud to win the gold medal for Canada. Seeing people and hearing how proud they were to watch my event, that’s a special feeling for me.
SN: Such a high percentage of our winter medals come from the province of Quebec. Why do you think that is?
Kingsbury: I think our generation, we had great role models. If I look at my sport I had [Alex] Bilodeau and Jean-Luc Brassard, they are both Olympic champions. Our generation we had great mentors. For me watching 2002, Salt Lake City, this is where I had the dream. We just carry the flag and it’s our time to shine.
SN: How did Bilodeau inspire you?
Kingsbury: Bilodeau had a big impact on me for sure. We had a great rivalry going and we’re still in touch. Me and Alex grew up in the same area, same ski mountain. He’s a big reason we were skiing the same way and making the podium together. A lot of kids are growing in our sport. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to create another Canadian rivalry like I had with Alex.
SN: What was the atmosphere like at the Olympics?
Kingsbury: There was a lot of pressure. The emotion was excitement but a lot of relief. I was the favourite to win the gold. A couple days before I started reading the projections of the Games and I saw my name everywhere on every website. Even Sports Illustrated was saying I was going to win the gold medal.
I was ready to be nervous but the day of the event I felt the pressure because it was a night event. I was in my bed and my heart wanted to go out of my chest because I was so nervous. One of things that helped was I had my country behind me. My partner at Cheerios sent me a bunch of cheer cards of Canadians wishing me good luck. I got to read a bunch of kids’ messages to me and it made me feel better.
SN: Most athletes claim not to pay attention to media or social media before competition. Why were you comfortable paying attention to outside noise before competing?
Kingsbury: Because I usually do it with the World Cups. It was more motivation. It kicked me in the butt. I was reading some tweets and my cheer cards and I felt like I have everyone behind me, I have a great team, I have my family here so now I have to just go do my job. And I know that whatever happens people will be supportive.
SN: You’ve now won everything in the sport. What’s the next goal for you?
Kingsbury: I want to continue to help my new sport grow by doing new tricks. I want to bring the double flips in moguls. That will be a great challenge for me. Even though I’m at the top if I want to continue to stay at the top I need to continue to work hard and change some stuff. I’m trying to stay at the top for four more years and put myself to put in a similar position in Beijing in 2022.
SN: How did you celebrate being at the top and winning Olympic gold?
Kingsbury: We went to karaoke. We had a little bit of McDonald’s but for us after that we had to compete in for more World Cup events and stay in shape because we had to finish the season very strong. It was fun for us to have a cheat day, we all deserved it.
SN: What is your go to karaoke song?
Kingsbury: A little bit of Celine Dion is always good even though I don’t know all the remixes. Go-to song for me at karaoke is [I’m Gonna Be (500 miles)] by The Proclaimers.
SN: What can be done to keep the focus on amateur athletes in between Olympics?
Kingsbury: We have the support from our country. We need to continue to have the support from the media. If we continue to talk about our World Cup competition about more and world championships. It’s pretty cool because it’s the same thing as the Games. I know people are close to the Olympic movement. The numbers on TV, they talk by themselves.
So, if we had the chance to have our competitions on TV it will help people follow us. For us a World Cup or Olympics, we prepare similarly so it would be nice for us to have the same amount of support.
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