ASTANA – Kazakh professional freestyle skier Yulia Galysheva won a gold medal March 2 in moguls at the 2018-2019 International Ski Federation (FIS, Fédération Internationale de Ski) Freestyle Ski World Cup stage in Almaty, reports the National Olympic Committee press service.
Yulia Galysheva. Photo credit: olympic.kz.
She earned first place in the moguls final stage with 79.69 points, followed by French skier Perrine Laffont with 79.11 points and Canadian skier Justine Dufour-Lapointe with 76.64 points.
“I could have performed better – I made a mistake on my jump,” said Galysheva, who competed with a shoulder injury, to the press service. “All top three athletes made mistakes, I just had the fewest.”
Previously, this World Cup season, Galysheva won a silver medal Dec. 7 in moguls in Finland, a bronze medal Dec. 16 in dual moguls in China, a gold medal Jan. 12 in moguls in Canada and a bronze medal Feb. 23 in moguls in Japan. She also won a gold medal Feb. 9 with 79.14 points at the 2019 FIS Ladies’ Moguls World Championship in the United States, ahead of Australian skier Jakara Anthony with 78.99 points and Laffont with 78.70 points.
She now ranks fourth in moguls with 533 points. Ahead of her in the World Cup rankings are Anthony with 545 points, American skier Jaelin Kauf with 570 points and Laffont with 780 points.
The 2018-2019 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup is the 40th World Cup season in freestyle skiing organised by FIS since 1980, featuring the disciplines such as moguls, aerials, ski cross, halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. The season began Sept. 7 and ends March 30.
World Cup competitions have been hosted in Australia, Austria, Belarus, Canada, China, Croatia Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States. This March, Kazakhstan hosted the cup for the first time.
“It is not my first time competing in Almaty so I am used to it,” said Galysheva on the Shymbulak ski facilities. “You can hear fans, which doesn’t happen abroad. They really liven up the place.”
