Alexandre Bilodeau defended his Olympic gold medal in men's moguls on Monday. While his rival Mikael Kingsbury took home the silver medal.
The Canadians were ranked one, two and three heading into the final round of six. Alex Bilodeau skied a solid run and scored a 26.31 to take the top spot. Russia's Alexandr Smyshlyaev took the bronze. Fellow Canadian Marc-Antoine Gagnon placed fourth, narrowly missing a Canadian sweep of the podium.
Bilodeau's win makes him the first Canadian to defend a gold medal in the same Olympic event since speedskater Catriona Lemay Doan did it in 2002. Alexandre was quickly joined at the sidelines by his older brother, Frederic.
Alex considers his older brother, who has cerebral palsy, as one of his biggest inspirations.
“But looking at my brother, to be able to give him that chance of being in my body for one day, and going to the Olympics, he would jump in my shoes and go out there and run a marathon. So I’m like ‘OK, let’s stick to the plan, let’s go,'” he told the Globe and Mail in an interview.
Bilodeau and Kingsbury were considered medal favourites heading into these Games. Kingsbury is the 2013 World Champion and Bilodeau won a gold in moguls at the 2010 Vancouver Games. In 2010, Bilodeau's emotional embrace of his brother after winning his gold medal became an emotional highlight of those Olympics.
The wins in men's moguls bump Canada's medal total to seven and cement Canada's domination of the moguls event. On the weekend, Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won a gold and silver in the women's event.