SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Alex Bilodeau became the first freestyle skier to repeat as Olympic champion Monday, winning the moguls title for Canada's third gold medal of the Games.
Bilodeau battled through the new and difficult format that was put in place for this year's moguls competition -- one in which a single substandard performance wipes out a competitor's medal hopes.
He scored a 26.31 from the judges in the finals to defeat fellow Canadian Mikael Kingsbury. Russian Alexandr Symshlyaev finished third.
Twenty skiers reach the finals through the qualifying process. Eight of them are cut from the competition after the first round of the finals
The first-round scores did not count in the second round, during which the field was trimmed from 12 to six. Again the scores were thrown out for the finals, leaving each skier with one chance to impress the judges.
Bilodeau impressed them the most, as he did in Vancouver.
Freestyle skiing became part of the Olympics in 1994 and no one in any of the disciplines, men or women, had won two titles in a row until Bilodeau did it Monday.
American Patrick Deenen made the finals, but he finished sixth and last.
