This is Mikaël Kingsbury of Quebec, spinning a cork 1080.

He’s the most decorated moguls skier of all time.

I’m six-times World Cup champion, 12 crystal globes, two-time world champion, and Olympic silver medalist. I hold the record for most World Cup wins all time, most wins in a row and most podiums in a row. So that's pretty awesome!

— Mikaël Kingsbury, moguls

Kingsbury has now won Olympic gold. He is inarguably the best, but when it comes to the progression of moguls, he can still leave his mark.

King of the Hill

The perilous pursuit of glory and gold

While aerial acrobatics may stand out, there is more to a moguls run than big air.

Scores are heavily weighted toward the skier’s performance on the three moguls sections, where 60 per cent of total points are awarded.

This is where Kingsbury shines.

His upper body remains firm while his lower half absorbs the brunt of the impact.

Judges gave him on average 54.6 points out of 60 this past World Cup season; an excellent score, or categorically the best according to their rulebook.

Another 20 per cent of the points are awarded for racing down the hill the fastest.

At roughly four moguls per second, with each one pushing skiers off the quickest line, the challenge here speaks for itself.

The remaining 20 per cent is reserved for the most exciting element of the sport: two aerials, where acrobatics and risk-taking are on display.

But going big has its drawbacks.

Take American skier Jonny Moseley, the 1998 Olympic moguls gold medalist.

He started a movement at the X Games in 1999 with the Dinner Roll, the first off-axis flip with two full rotations.

Moseley nailed it at the 2002 Olympics, after lobbying for the right to perform the trick. But his feat failed to impress the judges and he missed the podium.

Canadian skier Alex Bilodeau upped the ante four years later, adding another full rotation to execute the first cork 1080 in Olympic competition.

He too went for the glory, but overshot the landing and missed the podium.

It was devastating and that was probably one of the biggest lessons of my career.

— Alex Bilodeau, moguls

Kingsbury now stands at the same precipice. Will he attempt the cork 1440, a daring trick that consists of four full off-axis rotations?

He’s landed roughly 40 of them in the off-season, teasing his social media followers with clips.

We've kind of come up with a set of ground rules that have to be met before we let him do the 1440.

— Rob Koher, coach

A trick takes about 1.8 seconds. Skiers must land before the next set of moguls.

Complex tricks don’t have the benefit of more time or space, making the cork 1440 difficult to pull off.

For off-axis tricks, the skier’s body needs to be within an approved range. More rotations could mean more deductions.

Multiple flips are not allowed so the cork 1440 is the outer limits of aerial difficulty. To date, no one has tried one in competition.

If I get the right course at the right moment, I'll feel ready to do it. And hopefully I'll be the first one.— Mikaël Kingsbury, moguls

More from this series:

Sledding

In Vivid Detail: Preparing for Olympic sledding sports

Skating

Mass Start: The three-headed speed skating race

CREDITS: Reporting, video editing and animation by TIMOTHY MOORE; Interactive design and development by CHRISTOPHER MANZA; Illustrations by TRISH McALASTER; Cinematography by TIMOTHY MYERS, GENERATION MEDIA; Editing by JAMIE ROSS and SHAWNA RICHER; Biomechanical research from Y. IKEGAMI, NAGOYA UNIVERSITY, JAPAN