Key events
Day three lunchtime summary
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud defended her women’s freeski slopestyle title, with China’s Eileen Gu in second and Canada’s Megan Oldham third. Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir finished 0.41 points off a medal.
Italy qualified for this afternoon’s semi-finals of the mixed doubles curling after a thrilling 7-6 win over the USA in the final round robin fixture.
Italy have a chance of a second gold of the Games in the men’s team combined skiing after Giovanni Franzoni went fastest in the downhill discipline.
Here are the best pictures so far:
Women’s freeski slopestyle report
Olympic champion Mathilde Gremaud from Switzerland retained her title on Monday in the slopestyle freestyle skiing competition at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games in Livigno.
China’s Eileen Gu, who had been hoping to convert her Beijing 2022 silver medal in the event into gold this time, came in second after tumbling at the start of her last run. Canada’s Megan Oldham, 24, made it to the bottom step of the podium despite a big crash on her second run.
Giving herself a day-late birthday present, Gremaud skied well above the already very high bar set by Gu, with three spectacular runs, wearing the Swiss flag like a cape on her last run having already ensured herself the gold medal. On a crisp and sunny day, Gremaud kicked off the final performing – for the first time ever by a woman – an elite level trick known as the nose butter double cork 1260. In this trick the skier presses the tips of the skis on the takeoff to start the spin and then performs a double cork 1260, two distinct off-axis, inverted flips combined with three and a half full, horizontal rotations.
Known for her variety of tricks on the slope, the Swiss champion veered towards very technical ones followed by breathtaking acrobatic jumps in her second run, which earned her the top score of 86.96, just pipping Gu’s first-run score of 86.58.
Despite the big crash on her second run, Oldham picked up in the third run, soaring through the rails and performing conservative yet still very acrobatic jumps at the end, winning her a score of 76.46.
Kirsty Muir missed out on Great Britain’s first medal of the Games by less than half a point. Scotland’s Muir scored 76.05 on her final run, agonisingly short of the Oldham.
Fourth place will come as a relative disappointment for the 19-year-old Muir, who broke down in tears afterwards, considering she had won the prestigious Aspen X Games two weeks ago with a score of 93.66.
Muir had touched down on her first run and ranked sixth after a relatively safe second run that scored 63.01, with only the best of each athlete’s final runs counting towards their final ranking.
Muir, who made her Olympic debut as a 17-year-old in Beijing, will get another medal chance later in the Games when she competes in the ski Big Air. Reuters & PA Media
Team combined skiing: Finland take the lead approaching the halfway point of the slalom runs. Eduard Hallberg goes down in 52.14sec which, combined with Elian Lehto’s downhill, puts them 0.27s ahead of a Norwegian pair in second. It’s still an outside shot of a medal for Finland but you never know …
Right, next up we have the second instalment of the men’s team combined skiing. Saturday’s downhill stars returned to Stelvio this morning for the first leg of this event. Each are paired up with a slalom skier, whose category is now under way, and the best combined time wins gold.
An Italian pair lead the standings after Giovanni Franzoni, the downhill silver medalist, went fastest this morning. Then three Swiss teams follow, with downhill champion Franjo von Allmen only fourth behind Alexis Monney and Marco Odermatt.
It’s disappointment for Kirsty Muir but there are more medals up for grabs for Great Britain later today. Mia Brookes will go for glory in the women’s snowboard big air at 6.30pm (GMT). The mixed doubles curling team can also confirm at least a silver if they win their semi-final against Sweden at 5.05pm.
Women’s freeski slopestyle final standings
Gold: Mathilde Gremaud (Swi) 86.96pts 🥇
Silver: Eileen Gu (Chn) 86.48 🥈
Bronze: Megan Oldham (Can) 76.46 🥉
Fourth: Kirsty Muir (GB) 76.05
Agonising for Muir, such small margins.
Gremaud comes down the slope with a Swiss flag acting as a cape, showboating for the crowd a bit and milking the moment. She defends her Olympic title from 2022.
🥇 Mathilde Gremaud wins the women’s freeski slopestyle
Eileen Gu had to go for it on her final run to dislodge the Swiss and she goes off on the first rail, handing gold to Gremaud before she’s even taken to her final run.
Freeski slopestyle: So close for Muir! She gets a slick first few rails and bars under her belt, then a huge first jump before a wobble on the penultimate. She puts down a massive final jump but it’s agonisingly short of a medal! She scores 76.05 – 0.41 off Oldham in third.
Freeski slopestyle: Finland’s Anni Karava goes well with a final run of 63.51 before the American teenager Avery Krumme gets it all wrong on the first rail and crashes into it. She finishes her run with a couple of straightforward jumps and gets some cheers. Kirsty Muir goes next …
Freeski slopestyle: Here come the big guns. Megan Oldham gets a clean final run off the rails and tube before landing her jumps, including a final 900, to give her medal chances a major boost. It’s 76.46pts and that’s the benchmark for bronze now.
Freeski slopestyle: Austria’s Lara Wolf (7th) goes off the first rail and her final run ends before it begins. Still she turns on the style for the rest of her run, ending with a superman front flip. When the pressure’s off …
Canada’s Naomi Urness hasn’t managed above 47pts so far but jumps up to 6th with an impressive final run.
Freeski slopestyle: China’s Liu Mengting can’t break into the medal positions as she pulls out of a rail on her final run. Italy’s Maria Gasslitter and Switzerland’s Giulia Tanno don’t do enough either.
Freeski slopestyle: The top 6 standings before the third and final run:
1 M Gremaud (Can) – 86.96pts
2 E Gu (Chn) – 86.58
3 M Oldham (Can) – 69.76
4 Liu M (Chn) – 67.46
5 G Tanno (Swi) – 65.85
6 K Muir (GB) – 63.01
There’s still a medal in this for Kirsty Muir. It looks like Gremaud and Gu will do battle for gold.
Freeski slopestyle: Leader Eileen Gu comes off the first rail and recovers to score 23.00, which can be shelved. Her first jump of 86.58 is still the score to beat.
Second-placed Mathilde Gremaud lands a huge 1260 on the penultimate jump and goes for an equally impressive final jump, landing superbly backwards. This could threaten the lead … it does! She goes top by 0.38pts with a 86.96 score.
Freeski slopestyle: GB’s Kirsty Muir goes 270 switch-up, backswap, 270 off the down-bar, then a huge first jump before landing the last two. It’s 63.01pts and puts her in 6th. Something on the board.
Freeski slopestyle: Finland’s Anni Karava can’t stick the landing off the penultimate jump after a couple of near misses in a cautious run. She stays on 49.61pts.
The 17-year-old American Avery Krumme also lands on her side on the final jump with a spin between 700 and 900 degrees. Kirsty Muir goes next for GB.
Freeski slopestyle: After such a promising second run, 3rd-place Megan Oldham of Canada crashes out on the final landing, both skis coming off. She looks a bit shaken but raises both hands to the crowd. Ouch.
Freeski slopestyle: Neither Guilia Tanno nor Lara Wolf can break into the medal places currently occupied by:
Gold: Eileen Gu (Chn) – 86.58pts
Silver: Mathilde Gremaud (Swi) – 83.60
Bronze: Megan Oldham (Can) – 69.76
Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir scored 37.15 on run 1 after losing it on the final jump.
Thanks Daniel. We’re approaching the business end of the women’s freeski slopestyle final. It’s make or break for those whose first run wasn’t high-scoring.
Italy’s Maria Gasslitter follows her first-run 50.33 with a 52.45. China’s Liu Menting (4th after run 1) loses her footing early on and can only manage 13.66.
Righto, that’s it from me for now. I’m going to watch the end of this then go and sauna, so here’s Billy Munday to chill with you through the next two hours.
Grimaud, the favourite and defending champ, comes out last, and there’s a lot of backwards stuff to start, hitting the centre of the rail, then a 1260 to finish that has her punching the air then holding her head, contemplating the ludicrousness of her behaviour. She’s going well ahead, I shouldn’t wonder … not she isn’t! She must make do with 83.60, which puts her second behind Eileen’s 86.58.
Eileen of China is out next, dead smart in her white suit, and lands a double cork 1260 at the end, lovely stuff. She loves it, and that felt like the best run we’ve seen so far, which ai appreciate sounds vaguely ridiculous coming from me. It’s absolutely insane what humans do to entertain themselves, and 86.58 takes her first.
She goes into the first jump backwards, then finishes with a huge jump that she doesn’t quite land. She looks devo’d at the end, but she nailed the rails at the start, and though the judges punish her with a score of 37.15, which puts her eighth out of nine, she was one move away from killing it and has two more goes so to do.
Backwards into the rail, switching direction, and this is so, so smooth…
Avery Krumme of USA starts poorly, but improves further down the course, 52.40 putting her fourth. So here comes Kirsty …
I should say, each competitor takes three goes, their best score the one which goes forward to decide who wins what.
It’s getting serious as Karava of Finland zooms down the slope, her tricks less wild that the ones we saw from Oldham, and her 49.621 puts her second-bottom.
Oldham of Canada also errs on a rail at the top of the course, but a 1260 spin at the end is followed by another with a safety grab, then a 900, and she absolutely loves it. Her 69.76 takes her into the lead.
Urness of Canada comes off a rail early doors, looking to turn her back on it, and she gets 24.65, which puts her last. Ouch.
Lara Wolf of Austria nails her routine, but our commentators reckon the difficulty wasn’t too high, a bizarre observation when we see her spinning in mid air. She gets 52.83 and third place, which tells us that “perfect execution means nothing if the difficulty isn’t there”.
Giulia Tanno of Switzerland is out next, finishing with a double cork 1080 and celebrating on landing. To my inexpert eye, she looked in good control, and gets 65.85, putting her second behind Liu.
Liu Mengting of China is next, her run not too complex, and she gets 67.46. She seems to like it.
And off we go, Gasslitter of Italy slipping off a rail – I’d obviously have nailed it all the way. She’s awarded 50.33, not great, but in a three-run final there’s plenty of scope to remedy situations. The competitors, by the way, are running in reverse order of qualification scores, so Muir goes three from the end, Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland, the defending champion and favourite for gold, waiting till last.
This is our field…
BBC tell us Muir has some of the bigger tricks – that others don’t – which make her a medal threat. She’s especially good at rails, but may well showcase gear we’ve not seen before.
Kirsty Muir says she always listens to music when she’s competing to get her into the zone. Her thoughts vanish, and once she leaps off, she can’t hear it any more. What a joy it must be to experience that flow state – speaking as a Tetris veteran, I know what she means.
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