Canadian great Mikaël Kingsbury expecting a battle for Olympic gold

He's the most dominant athlete in the history of freestyle skiing and on Saturday Feb. 5, the king of the moguls, Mikaël Kingsbury, will have a chance to retain his throne.

It will be one of Canada's first chances at a medal at the Beijing Olympics and Kingsbury hopes he'll have the honour like he did in Pyeongchang four years ago.

With 101 World Cup podiums (71 wins) in 120 World Cup starts, six world championships and two Olympic medals, Kingsbury is unmatched in his sport, but there are rivals knocking on the door. More on that below. 

Kingsbury's not the only returning champion. On the women's side, France's Perrine Laffont attempts to win back-to-back gold medals, after becoming the youngest Olympic freestyle champion at age 19 in 2018.

Who will challenge the reigning Olympic champions, and what will the path to the medals look like? We have the answers. 

The competition consists of two qualification rounds and three final rounds stretched over two days of competition for the men (Feb. 3 and 5) and women (Feb. 3 and 6). 

All 30 skiers complete the first run, ranked according to their scores. The top 10 skiers advance directly to the finals, while the remaining 20 ski a second qualification run with the top 10 athletes from that joining the final. 

Final 1 consists of 20 skiers, the top 12 scores move on to Final 2. From there the top 6 skiers move on to Final 3, or the "Super Final," where the medals will be decided. Each round is elimination style with just one run per skier. 

Seven judges score each run out of 100. Turns (skiing) are worth 60 per cent, while air and time are worth 20 per cent each. Scores in the high 70s are good, while scores in the 80s are excellent. 

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