Cooper Woods wins men’s freeski moguls gold, denying Mikaël Kingsbury via tiebreak

Australia’s Cooper Woods won Olympic gold in the men’s freestyle skiing moguls Thursday in Livigno despite having the same score as Canadian great Mikaël Kingsbury.

Both athletes finished with 83.71 points but the gold medal was decided by a tiebreak, with their turn points score used to separate the two athletes. Woods scored 48.4 to Kingsbury’s 47.7 on this element to win Australia’s seventh gold at a Winter Olympics.

Japan’s Ikuma Horishima, who prevented Kingsbury from three straight moguls world titles last year, soared into first place in the second final, recording a score of 83.44. Kingsbury, the penultimate skier in the second final, had a brilliant run, getting air on his jumps and landing his turns. Only Woods was left to go and the 25-year-old delivered the run of his career, getting  to the bottom of the hill in 22.61 seconds.

After an agonising wait, Woods screamed and jumped, hugging his fellow Australian competitor, Matt Graham, on learning he had won. Kingsbury slammed his skis down in frustration. He had come so close to his second career Olympic gold. Horishima won bronze, his second career Olympic medal.

For Woods, from Merimbula, Australia, this is the biggest win of his career. He broke into the World Cup top 10 in moguls in January 2022, after placing ninth in Tremblant. Woods made his Olympic debut in Beijing 2022, finishing sixth in men’s moguls. Coming into the Milan Cortina Games, Woods had zero Olympic and world championship medals. That changed with his final run at the Livigno Moguls Park.

Kingsbury, Canada’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony and the most accomplished freestyle skier of all time, secured his fourth career Olympic medal with the silver.

He entered the Olympics as a nine-time world champion and holds the record for most World Cup wins (100) and 143 podiums. Kingsbury was sidelined to start the 2025-26 moguls season due to a groin injury but captured his 100th World Cup win in Val Saint-Côme, Que., his first competition of the season. Kingsbury will aim for his fifth Olympic medal in the dual moguls competition.

With Woods’ gold, Australia has its first Olympic medal of the Games.