And...we're racing! Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle streaked through the snowboard cross course at Milan Cortina 2026 to snatch consecutive Olympic gold medals in snowboard cross — an incredible feat in such an unpredictable sport.
Haemmerle and Canadian Eliot Grondin once again went 1-2 in a rematch of the big final race at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics that ended in a photo finish where Haemmerle was awarded gold and Grondin placed 2nd. Austria's Jakob Dusek closely followed to claim bronze.
"Unbelievable. I’m not sure how I made it. It was so tight all the time, but it was great racing with Eliot once again," Haemmerle said. "The big final was a big, big fight. I’m happy to come out on top."
"It's a lot of emotion for sure, sharing the podium with Alessandro again, who just beat me in the last Olympics by 0.002 [seconds] or something, and then again today, by 0.003 or something," Grondin said.
"It's been tight with him, but he's been one of my biggest rivals since I started racing snowboard cross at the high level, so at least losing against him probably hurts a little less than some other people," Grondin continued.
"There's so much pressure in snowboard cross, especially once you win an Olympic gold. All the guys before me have two, I'm so glad I could step into their footsteps," Haemmerle said. American Seth Wescott earned Olympic gold at Torino in 2006 and Vancouver in 2010. French Pierre Vaultier followed his lead, winning the Olympic title in Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018.
"I wish good luck to the next guy winning the Olympic gold. It means a ton to me," Haemmerle said. "Everybody in snowboard cross has two of these at home. The next one should have two as well, I hope."
The next one could be one of the three Frenchmen who were hot in their races. Aidan Chollet reached the big final and placed 4th. His younger brother, Jonas Chollet, was eliminated in a photo finish with Dusek in a semifinal race that included both Chollet brothers and Frenchman Loan Bozzolo. Dusek and Aidan Chollet prevailed.
"I'm very happy. It was a complicated race, very long, and I gave it my all. I'm super proud to have done that," Jonas Chollet said of his Olympic debut. "My brother managed to come 4th. We could have hoped for better but he was very, very strong all day long, and that's great."
American Nick Baumgartner, entered his fifth Olympics as the oldest snowboarder in the field at 44. Yet age is but a number. Baumgartner led the U.S. to finish 7th after impressive runs in the quarterfinal and semifinal races. Baumgartner advanced to the small final after being eliminated by Haemmerle in a photo finish in the second semifinal heat.
In the small final, Baumgartner went head-to-head against Jonas Chollet, 17, who is four years younger than his son, Landon.
Earlier in the dramatic quarterfinal that ended with three photo finishes across the four races, American Nathan Pare made contact with Spain's Lucas Eguibar. He made a powerful streak to cross the finish line first as Jonas Chollet and Bozzolo followed behind in a photo finish. After review, it was ruled that Pare would rank as last for making contact with Eguibar. Jonas Chollet and Bozzolo qualified for the semifinal.
"I don't necessarily agree with the call, which is fine. I tried to do everything I could. I tried to plead my case, but at the end of the day, I can't control everything," Pare said. "For sure, there’s a lump in my throat. I don't really know the emotions, how to explain it. There's a lot going on and it's going to take a while to get over."
"I tried to overpass Nathan and Jonas," Eguibar said. "I went hard on turns three and four because I was in backside and then Nathan comes to the inside really aggressive, and then to the outside and he pushed me. He touched my board. We can see on my board that it's a little bit broken because he touched me. He pushed me and that's it."
American Jake Vedder was eliminated in the quarterfinals, while teammate Cody Winters was eliminated in the round of 32.
Men's snowboard cross medalists
🥇Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT)
🥈Eliot Grondin (CAN)
🥉Jakob Dusek (AUT)