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Graham insists moguls ski ace is beatable

3 minute read

Ahead of the first moguls World Cup leading into the Beijing Winter Olympics, Australia medal hope Matt Graham insists Canadian Mikael Kingsbury can be beaten.

Mikael Kingsbury is the raging favourite to win Olympic gold in Beijing next January but Australian mogul skier Matt Graham says the Canadian ace can be beaten.

Graham won silver at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang behind Kingsbury, a six-time world champion who has also won nine World Cup events.

The margin between the pair will be for all to see this weekend in the opening World Cup of the season in Ruka, Finland.

Fellow Australians Brodie Summer, Cooper Woods and James Matheson will also compete as they look to nail down selection for the February Olympics.

Jakara Anthony and Britt Cox will lead the Australian charge in the women's event, with the team spending the past three weeks training at the venue.

Kingsbury fractured his back training on the Ruka course last year and missed most of the season.

In his absence the ultra-consistent Graham collected the World Cup Crystal Globe as the No.1-ranked skier on the overall standings after three podium performances.

Graham says he's feeling upbeat about the season ahead.

"Last year I was very happy with the Crystal Globe and getting a world championship silver medal in dual moguls was pretty special," the 27-year-old told AAP.

"Overall, obviously it was quite a good season on paper, but behind the scenes I found it was a really good season for me training wise.

"That fed into the competition performances, which resulted in the Crystal Globe, which was super rewarding."

Despite Kingsbury's domination - he returned from the injury to win another world championship - Graham said he wasn't invincible.

"Everyone's beatable; he's getting older, he's 29, and things can go wrong in our sport," Graham said.

"It doesn't take much to crash and if you do your day is over.

"All he needs to do is make a little mistake and there's a bunch of guys who can slide on to the top step of the podium.

"It will come down to who executes the best run."

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