24-year-old Wallberg fired off his broadest smile when it became clear that he had won the season's first World Championship parallel event. The Swedish Olympic gold medalist from Beijing 2022 defeated Frenchman Benjamin Cavet in the final.
The effort on the Georgian piste took its toll.
My legs are completely exhausted and I'm out of breath. It was tough today, says the blue and yellow mogul star.
I got a cold a few days ago, struggled with the altitude and this long course. I took it one lap at a time and just tried to go fast. But this is what I've been training for all summer, training intervals with short breaks.
Wallberg had to take on the role of Swedish destroyer to reach the final. In the quarterfinals, he knocked out Rasmus Stegfeldt and in the semifinals, it was Filip Gravenfors who was defeated by Wallberg with the smallest possible margin.
Gravenfors had earlier knocked out Canadian superstar Mikaël Kingsbury in his quarterfinal. The Swede finished third after beating Japanese Ikuma Horishima in the "small final".
Jaelin Kauf, USA, won the women's event.
The first parallel event in the World Cup was originally supposed to be held in Idre two weeks ago, but it was cancelled due to fog.
