Mikael Kingsbury’s dream year earns him male athlete of the year honours

MONTREAL — Mikael Kingsbury never had so much to lose as on Feb. 12, when he hit the track at the Phoenix Snow Park. As the odds-on favourite in the men’s moguls event at the Pyeongchang Olympics, the 26-year-old ski star was well aware that only a victory would meet expectations.

Going second-last in the super final, Kingsbury rose to the occasion. In full control, he nailed a perfect descent that earned him the one title that had eluded him: Olympic champion.

“I was in the position where it was gold or nothing,” the athlete from Deux-Montagnes, Que. said of his second Olympic experience.

“For those who follow my sport, even a second place would have been considered a poor performance. Yes, there was pressure but, at the top of the course, I had a really good feeling. And when that’s the case, I have confidence and that’s always a good sign.”

Kingsbury’s dream year earns him the Lionel Conacher Award from The Canadian Press as Canada’s male athlete of the year.

The Quebec skier was chosen by 30 of the 56 sportswriters and commentators from newsrooms across the country.

He beat out Edmonton Oilers centre Connor McDavid (12 votes), who won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s top scorer as well as the Ted Lindsay Award for outstanding player as selected by his peers.

Next on the list was soccer phenom Alphonso Davies with five votes, double Olympic speed skating medallist Ted-Jan Bloeman (3), para-skier Brian McKeever (3), New Jersey Devils winger Taylor Hall (2), and Ottawa Redblacks receiver Brad Sinopoli (1).

“I could have chosen McDavid, as we chose (Sidney) Crosby at one time, but Kingsbury’s gold was one of the strongest moments of the Korean games, leading into performances by other Canadian athletes,” wrote Le Quotidien’s Denis Bouchard.

“No other Canadian athlete dominates their sport as outrageously as Mikael Kingsbury,” wrote Jean-Francois Begin of La Presse.

While Olympic gold was undoubtedly the highlight of his year, Kingsbury continued to dominate the World Cup circuit with seven victories in 10 starts, including three in a row to end the 2017-18 season.

He won two Crystal Globes at the end of the last World Cup season as overall men’s freestyle points leader and overall men’s moguls leader.

Kingsbury becomes the first skier to win the Lionel Conacher Award, which is named after the multi-sport champion chosen as the top athlete of the first half of the 20th century in 1950.

Golfer Brooke Henderson was awarded the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as female athlete of the year on Wednesday for the third time. The sports team of the year will be named on Friday.

Earlier this month Kingsbury was also awarded the Toronto Star’s Lou Marsh Award for top Canadian athlete.

“It’s crazy to have had this much success,” Kingsbury said. “It’s an almost perfect season. My worst 2018 result was a second place.”

“Compared to other sports, like tennis, it’s as if I won all the Grand Slam finals.”

Kingsbury dominates his sport.

In January 2018 Kingsbury set a new record for World Cup wins with his 47th victory. He has 52 victories in 93 starts.

“I kind of feel like I have an aura around me. Without saying I intimidate the other competitors due to my repeated success, I have a great confidence in my abilities, I make few errors and that lets me find little advantages over them,” he said.

“But I know I have a big target on my back and they all want to beat me. I’ve been first in the world for seven years, and every year there are those who say, ‘Kingsbury, we’re going to push him aside.’ It makes the competition even more interesting.”

And even if he’s won everything, don’t expect him to relinquish his throne. Kingsbury says there’s still plenty to motivate him.

“I love to win and I still want to win, but my motivation isn’t necessarily found in results,” he said. “I’m aiming above all to reach my full potential, to innovate in my sport, to try new jumps. I want to see how far I can go.”

“While perfection doesn’t exist in my sport, my goal is to get as close as possible to it and to push the limits, in speed as well as the execution of my jumps.”

Marc Delbes, The Canadian Press

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Sports

Boxing authority says allegedly male competitor should return Olympic medal won against women

Published on June 26, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Ray Hilbrich

IBA President Umar Kremlev has called for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to return the Olympic medal and criticized the IOC for prioritizing politics over fairness in sport

Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), has called for Algerian boxer Imane Khelif to return an Olympic medal, citing gender testing concerns. Khelif was the center of controversy during the Olympic games after allegations arose that the purportedly female boxer had in fact failed two gender tests in 2022 and 2023. The IBA had banned Khelif from women’s events after the tests indicated the athlete had XY chromosomes.

Kremlev expressed his outrage that Khelif was allowed to compete as a woman in the Olympic games. Speaking to the Daily Mail for an article published June 25, Kremlev accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of championing political interests over sport fairness.

“There is a lot of corruption surrounding the IOC, and many violations of good sporting principles,” Kremlev said. “The IOC is not fighting for the fairness in sport. The IOC is giving away medals based on their political interests. Imane Khelif should be made to return the Olympic medal from Paris.”

Kremlev then described the gender tests conducted by the IBA on Khelif.

After encountering some “suspicious moments” regarding Khelif’s gender, the IBA conducted their first test in 2022; it yielded “abnormal results.” Kremlev admitted that the IBA had never come across a situation like this, so they decided to conduct another test in 2023.

“That second test was done in 2023 and confirmed the same findings as the first. Both tests showed XY chromosomes,” he stated.

The IOC has called the validity of these tests into question.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams pronounced these tests “not legitimate”.

Kremlev has advocated for mandatory gender testing before competitions — a proposal that could reignite global debate on privacy and fairness in sports.

“There should be one rule that everyone follows. Gender testing before every event. That’s the only way to make sure the fight is fair,” he stated.

Bruce Dowbiggin

What Connor Should Say To Oilers: It’s Not You. It’s Me.

Published on June 23, 2025

Bruce Dowbiggin

This just in. Connor McDavid is on track to be the greatest hockey player ever. Apologies to the Gretz/ Orr/ Howe partisans. But if he stays healthy and gets the hell out of Edmonton he will be hands-down the best ever. He is equal measures of Gretzky’s intuitive genius, Orr’s 200-foot impact. Howe’s sandpaper attitude. It’s an honour to watch him.

We know, we know, if he is so great why couldn’t he get the Oilers over the hump, particularly the past two seasons against Florida? Gretz, Orr, Howe all won Stanley Cups while leading their teams. So did Mario Lemieux. Fair point. But Howe in his prime never played more than two series in the postseason. Orr often played just three. Gretz teams often bagelled opponents for years.

McDavid’s teams the last two years have had lengthy paths to tred. Just getting to a Final is a huge accomplishment. Repeating that feat (going seven then six games) in the Final is humungous. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically. That’s why so few teams do it.

Still, that’s not the point. We have been asking since 2018 how long McDavid will hobble his legacy by staying in Edmonton. Those early columns were talking about a team that missed playoffs or did a Maple Leafs fold early on. The current iteration of the Oilers has gotten to the brink. They have players who’ve been around a while. And fell short.

Now the Oilers are an old team, the oldest in the regular season, the oldest team in the playoffs this year. Teams carrying more than two plus-30 players have a miserable track record of winning Cups. And the Oilers have zero Grade A prospects in the pipeline. At 28, McDavid is a young guy on their roster. Not good.

As the hockey world knows he can sign an extension on July 1 to follow the contract he has now. Money will be no object as the NHL salary cap (finally) goes up. Term will be forever if he wants it. His running mate Leon Draisaitl is tied up till age 36. The Oilers desperately want him to stay after the Gretzky fiasco in 1988. So what is he going to do? He’s got national endorsements in Canada, but in the U.S.? Connor who? The sky is the limit.

Oilers fans palpitating over the future of their star were looking for hints as to his mindset when he met the media following the Oilers loss in six games to Florida. It was a chance for him to say he’s staying, he loves the place, his wife is committed to freezing every winter in the Alberta capital. He could have cried and said “Mess told me not to do that”.

What they got was a lot of maybe. Yes, he kept the doors open, but he said he needs time to see the landscape till the clock tolls on July 1. He needs to examine whether this veteran team has a future. Because in a few years they’ll be like Howe’s Detroit teams in the 60s, a played-out dynasty.

Under NHL rules no team can contact him about signing. But he will know that everyone will want him at a max deal. Some will offer no state income tax. Some will have teams on the cusp of the Cup he desires (see Matthew Tkachuk to Florida in 2023). Some will be giant U.S. media cities with the ability to make him what Gretzky became in L.A. Some will offer warm weather and anonymity away from the rink.

These are all knowns. For the impatient, teams can approach the Oilers now about a trade. So he’s holding all the cards. It’s prom night and he gets his pick. Unless Edmonton (gulp) jumps the gun on a trade.

Let’s play Peter Pocklington for a minute here and see this from the Oilers’ POV. Pocklington traded Gretzky, because Peter was broke. That’s not Darryl Katz’s problem. His problem is his team is about to get ancient. There is no McDavid for Draisaitl on the horizon. Plus, you’ve tied up several players (Nurse, Nugent Hopkins) to contracts they can’t hope to play up to. And youngish players coming into free agency.

He must address the other side of the 1988 Gretzky equation. How to get full market value for a superstar? Which means getting another star to help Draisaitl going forward. You could let the two play out the string together in Edmonton, of course. But with so many strong teams in Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, even Winnipeg that would be a hard slog. And by the time you realized that it would be too late.

The smart play, as Michael Corleone would say, is move fast. Trade McDavid before the start of next season for a boatload of young players to supplement Draisaitl. Take a short-term PR hit but live to compete another day.

Of course, Katz is not going to trade McDavid. He’s a fanboy owner. He’ll throw the Rexall kitchen sink at him and hope that’s enough. McDavid will be patient (if he’s smart). The “will-he-sign?” drama will bleed into the next season, a millstone for the team. The distractions will mount before Edmonton realizes that an unsigned McDavid is a liability. And Connor on a max deal with a minus team is no bargain either.

Remember the re-structured Oilers won a Cup in 1990 using Mark Messier and the players they got for Gretzky. Think about it, Edmonton.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.