Kingsbury’s ‘last dance’: Canadian freestyle legend confirms he’ll end his career with last race in Quebec
Before all the medals, awards and accolades, at his family cottage at Sommet Saint-Sauveur in the Laurentian Mountains just north of Montreal, Canadian moguls superstar Mikaël Kingsbury dreamed of being an Olympic champion.
The cottage backs onto the ski hill and an eight-year-old Kingsbury would exhaustively go up and down that hill; his mom carried a walkie-talkie inside the cottage, Kingsbury carried one on the hill, so they could communicate when it was safe to speed down the slope.
His destiny was being carved into that snow even before he could imagine what was meant for him in this sport.
In storybook fashion, Kingsbury, now 33, is finishing his unparalleled moguls career on the hill on which it all began 25 years ago.
In an exclusive interview with CBC Sports, the five-time Olympic medallist confirmed he’s retiring at the end of competition this weekend at the Canadian freestyle ski championships – on Sommet Saint-Sauveur.
“The last dance. I’m ready for it. It’s been in the back of my mind for quite a long time. And it was in the back of my mind since I’d say September, where I started thinking about it and I knew it was clear in my head,” Kingsbury said sitting inside that formative cottage.
“To have done my first race here in my life, like a mogul skiing competition and finishing on that, that’s kind of my full circle moment.”
Kingsbury is the most dominant moguls skier in history, amassing 100 career World Cup wins and nine world championship titles. Last month, in his fourth Olympics, he won silver and an historic dual moguls gold to cap off his illustrious career.
“Now I can say I won everything. And my goal was to win the Olympics and retire. I have no regrets. It’s not like I’m missing something, you know?” he said. “I wanted to go out on the high. I feel I entered the sport from the front door and I want to exit it on my own terms and not get pushed out.”
There’s also another priority in Kingsbury’s life as well. One of the biggest reasons for his retirement, aside from having won everything there is to win in the sport, is directly tied to his new role as father.
Last August, his partner Laurence gave birth to their son Henrik. Kingsbury has had to learn how to juggle sport and fatherhood over the last year and a half but is now looking forward to spending more time with his son.
“I want to be more present. They’ve been able to travel with me and it’s been awesome,” he said. “I felt I gave my part to the sport and I still love it and I’ll still keep skiing a lot. But getting more family time is important to me.”
Laurence, Henrik, Kingbury’s mom and dad, Julie and Robert, his whole family was in Livigno, Italy, to see his silver- and gold-medal performances in February. Henrik featured prominently in the post-event celebrations, including podium pictures.
“I couldn’t write it any better if I was a movie director. To have all my family there at the bottom of the course. It was just special to make it happen and to be able to win in front of your son on that stage,” Kingsbury said.
“I felt like I’d won already. You know, I have a healthy kid at the bottom of the course. Like, what more can you ask for? I was just thinking about him and I was like, life is good.”
Family is at the core of Kingsbury. The team around him, he says, is what has allowed him to reach the pinnacle of his sport.
And while he’s normally composed in his interviews, this time – in one of his final conversations before his last competition – he was overcome with emotion while talking about his family as his mom listened in from the kitchen.
“Obviously to my family,” Kingsbury began.
And then stopped.
“It’s pretty, I felt pretty lucky to,” he stopped again, tears now welling up in his eyes.
He paused for a few moments.
“I didn’t think I was going to be emotional. I got some composure back. My family has been everything for me. You know, they taught me how to ski and I have an older brother and younger sister, and it’s been fun to do that with them,” Kingsbury said.
“My parents, they supported me and never put pressure on me so I could do what I love the most. So I feel very lucky and they’ve been there from day one.”
Kingsbury comes by the emotion naturally. His mom Julie was just as emotional as she tried to find words to describe this journey.
“It’s been our life. It’s a retirement for the whole family,” she said. “You put your kids in little courses and little activities and you don’t know where it will lead. And it was his dream. He’s the champion. He did everything. We were just there to help him.”
Julie has been there for it all – mostly the good, because Kingsbury’s career was laced with greatness. But there have been some tough moments too, including an injury leading into the Olympics that put everything into jeopardy.
“I have a lot of very, very nice memories,” she said. “When you see your son – I’m going to cry a little bit when I say this – but when they are seven years old and they win a gold medal, well, it’s exactly the same smile when they are at the Olympics.
“It’s exactly the same thing except that there are more people who are watching, but it’s the same feeling and you see the same pride.”
I’m proud to be Canadian and lucky to be Canadian. It’s very special to wear the maple leaf. We’re very well-loved, Canadians everywhere we travel and I’ve got to experience that.– Mikaël Kingsbury
Julie beamed when she talked about a special time she and Mikaël shared in the wake of him winning Olympic gold in 2018. Julie stayed with her son for a few days in between events. She said she’ll never forget what it was like to wake up each morning to Mikaël celebrating his first Olympic gold medal.
“It was his dream to have the gold medal. So each morning when we woke up, Mikaël was putting some music on. And then he was taking his medal and we were dancing together with it. Just him and I in a hotel room.”
Kingsbury’s resume includes 29 Crystal Globes as a season champion in his sport. He reached the podium in all but one of his 16 career starts at the world championships. His 15 world championship podiums as well as his nine world titles are both records in freestyle skiing.
He won either a gold or silver medal in every Olympic event he competed in four Games, including two gold medals and three silver medals.
Kingsbury always felt an immense responsibility to represent Canada to the best of his ability whenever competing on the world stage.
So when Canada still hadn’t won a gold medal nine days into his final Olympics, Kingsbury was about to change that.
Mikaël Kingsbury won Canada’s first gold medal of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games in dual moguls. Kingsbury’s victory solidified his place as the most decorated moguls skier of all time at what will be his last Olympics.
“ I mean, I’m the flag-bearer. So it’s great leadership to go get that first one,” he said. “I was on my phone in my bed the night before the dual moguls and I was reading those posts that Team Canada posted about the medal count. And people were posting about us being unlucky. And a lot of people were writing that on my post, too.
“I was like, I’m going to get it done tomorrow. I’m proud I won the first one. And hopefully in the future we don’t have to wait nine days.”
Above all, Kingsbury wants to thank Canadians for supporting him for nearly two decades.
“I felt I had the best support. I’m proud to be Canadian and lucky to be Canadian. It’s very special to wear the maple leaf. We’re very well-loved, Canadians everywhere we travel and I’ve got to experience that,” he said.
“It’s pretty cool to get recognized in the airports, at the grocery store or anywhere. It’s tough to find the right words, but I feel very blessed to have all this support from the 40 million Canadians.”
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