Krasnaya Polyana, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) - As expected, it came down to Canadians Alex Bilodeau and Mikael Kingsbury for the men's moguls gold medal at the Sochi Olympics.
Experience beat youth.
Bilodeau captured his second straight gold medal in the event, beating Kingsbury in what could also be viewed as a passing of the torch for Team Canada.
Bilodeau and Kingsbury had the top two scores in qualifying, setting up a potential battle between the world's top-two ranked moguls skiers. It in fact came down to that, with the 21-year-old Kingsbury going last in the third final.
Staring at Bilodeau's score of 26.31, Kingsbury struggled a bit on his turns, but a solid showing in the air gave him a silver medal-winning score of 24.71 in his first Olympics.
He received a quick embrace from Bilodeau while awaiting his score.
That left gold for the 26-year-old Bilodeau in his third Olympics. In the 2010 Vancouver Games, Bilodeau became the first Canadian ever to capture an Olympic gold medal on home soil.
The Canadians had a chance to sweep the podium, but Russia's Alexandr Smyshlyaev captured bronze with a score of 24.34. Canada's Marc-Antoine Gagnon ended up fourth.
American Patrick Deneen, ranked third in the World Cup leaderboards in moguls, finished sixth. He was the lone chance at a medal for the U.S. in the third final run after Bradley Wilson fell in the first final and did not advance.
Wilson is the younger brother of 2010 bronze medalist Bryon Wilson.
Dale Begg-Smith, the Vancouver-born millionaire who skis for Australia and who won the event in 2006, failed to advance out of qualifying earlier in the day. His initial score of 19.74 was 19th when the first run was completed and the veteran fell on his second attempt for a score of just 9.65.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.