Graham's brave bid for world moguls medal falls short
Freestyle skier Matt Graham's courageous quest to win another world championship moguls medal has fallen short in Switzerland, as the evergreen Australian star had to settle for fifth place.
Hardly in his finest shape after a crash in Livigno, Italy, a week-and-a-half ago resulted in the 30-year-old suffering bruised lungs, four-time medallist Graham showed real heart in his determination to compete in the St Moritz showpiece.
But after a superb effort in Tuesday's qualifying and Wednesday's final, Gosford's Graham, who had been left vomiting blood in his painful build-up to St Moritz following the crash, could only finish fifth as Japan's Ikuma Horishima was crowned the new king of the moguls.
Perrine Laffont does it again! 🔥 Coming into the 2025 World Champs as the reigning double World Champion, she put down her best skiing to defend her title from 2023 and claim her career's 6th World Champs gold! 🏆⛷️ #fisfreestyle #fismoguls #wintersport #engadin2025 pic.twitter.com/vcIwfUORzV
— FISfreestyle (@FISfreestyle) March 19, 2025
The top four skiers were well ahead of the rest of the field, with Horishima (89.03 points) ending the reign of the great Canadian Mikael Kingsbury (82.68), the most successful moguls skier in history, who had been gunning for a fourth-straight title by a comfortable 6.35-point margin.
Graham's 74.84 finals run wasn't enough to match Korean bronze medalist Daeyoon Jung (81.76) nor American Nick Page (80.77) but represented a remarkable effort from the Australian, a 2018 Olympic silver medallist who'd also won world championship silver in 2023 and bronze in 2019 in this event.
Graham's teammate Cooper Woods finished ninth.
In the equivalent women's event on Wednesday, Australia's Olympic champion Jakara Anthony, who's been out of action after breaking her collarbone in a fall in December, was absent.
But Perrine Laffont, the main threat to Anthony's Olympic ambitions next year, showed just why as she won her third straight world moguls gold.
The brilliant Frenchwoman, who also won in 2021 and 2023 as well as having three dual moguls titles to her name, took the gold in 77.92, while Hinako Tomitaka, of Japan, took silver (75.15) and Canada's Maia Schwinghammer bronze (74.92).
Laffont had enjoyed a sabbatical in 2024 while Anthony swept all before her, and they're set to enjoy a fierce rivalry going into next year's Milan-Cortina Winter Games.
Charlotte Wilson, the 20-year-old Australian who recently stunned the sport by winning the dual moguls on the Olympic course in Livigno in just her 10th World Cup start, couldn't match that extraordinary effort as she finished seventh in the final (54.27).
The big disappointment for the Australian team's challenge came in the ski slopestyle as Abi Harrigan, who'd won a surprise maiden silver medal in a World Cup event in the French resort of Tignes at the weekend, failed to make the final from Wednesday's qualifying rounds.
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