Freestyle skier Alex Bilodeau caps golden career with World Cup win

For Alexandre Bilodeau and Mikaël Kingsbury, their World Cup race on Friday ended like so many others: with a two-man race between the two Canadians for the top of the podium.

But this time around, Kingsbury had already locked up the World Cup moguls title, his third straight, and Bilodeau had long known this was the last race of his illustrious career. There were no added stakes, just a final race between two friendly rivals and teammates.

“I knew the grand prix was done – I couldn’t go up, I couldn’t go down,” says Bilodeau, who finished the World Cup season in second place. “I went up to Mikael and said, ‘I’m really honoured to have my last run against the best in the world.’”

The feeling was mutual. “We did a big hug before our [dual race final], and I told him it was an honour for me to do his last run against him,” Kingsbury says. “Maybe we were a bit emotional, both of us.”

Bilodeau went out with style, executing a double backflip he would normally consider "too risky" in head-to-head races, though Kingsbury crossed the finish line before him. Regardless, Bilodeau did enough to secure the victory, capping his career with another first-place finish.

“It's amazing,” Bilodeau told the International Ski Federation after the race. “The first race of my career was in France and so was the last race and I'm really happy to finish on a good note.”

Bilodeau, 26, retires as one of Canada's greatest Olympians. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he won the nation's first gold medal on home soil. Four years later, he defended his Olympic title in Sochi, a first for a freestyle skier. And with his victory on Friday, Bilodeau notched the 48th podium finish of his World Cup career, breaking the record of his childhood idol, fellow Olympic champion Jean-Luc Brassard.

“I never looked at the number of podiums I won,” he says. “For me, it was just the everyday process of trying to be the best in the world every time, whether it was a training run or competition day.”

On most days the past four years, either Bilodeau or Kingsbury was the world’s best moguls skier, and both credit their rivalry for helping spur them to greater heights.

But with Bilodeau out of the picture, Kingsbury is the undisputed king of moguls, a title he’s more than qualified for. At just 21, he’s already eclipsed Bilodeau’s World Cup win total, and it’s only a matter of time before he passes the overall podium record. He's focused on the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, and though it’s a long way off, the Sochi silver medallist is considered the early favourite.

“For sure, I’ve had an amazing career so far,” Kingsbury says. “But I think the best is still to come.”

Bilodeau won’t be in Pyeongchang, which is exactly what he wants. He’s got an entire life ahead of him. He gets married this summer, and he’s eager to finish his accounting studies at Concordia University in Montreal. There was no question for him that now was the right time to retire.

“I think I’ve become the best skier I could have become,” he says. “For me, that’s enough.”