Megan Oldham of Canada found gold in Italy, weathering an hour-plus delay for heavy wind and snow Monday night to avenge her 4th-place finish from four years ago and outduel 2022 Olympic champion Eileen Gu, who claimed her second silver medal of the Milan Cortina Games.
Heavy medal contender and Beijing bronze medalist Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland, Saturday's No. 3 qualifier, did not compete. She crashed hard during pre-competition training and injured her hip. Gremaud's teammate Anouk Andraska also crashed, injuring her wrist.
Oldham, last week's slopestyle bronze medalist behind Gremaud and Gu, busted a switch left double cork 1260 safety grab (91.75) and locked in a left double cork 1260 Weddle grab (89.00) to score a 180.75. A native of Parry Sound, Ontario, Oldham missed the Beijing big air podium by less than 5 points, and during the immediate leadup to Milan Cortina finished 4th and 5th at the last two world championships and 3rd at last month's X Games.
Gu combined 1440 and 1260 double corks for a 179.00. The San Francisco-born Stanford University student effortlessly stomped her opening right double cork 1440 (90.00), then missed the tail grab and nearly fell on a second-run left double cork 1260. After nailing that grab on a rebate for her final jump (89.00), vaulting her to 2nd place, she celebrated by hugging her mom in the stands.
Skiing on a torn ACL, Italy's Flora Tabanelli took bronze with a 178.25, laying down a massive left double 1620 on her final run — the same trick Gu used to secure gold in the 2022 final. The 18-year-old won both Winter X Games and world title in 2025 before injuring the knee in November while training in Austria. She opted for rehab instead of surgery in order to compete in Italy.
In a story post on Instagram, Gremaud said she was "all good" and had "soft tissue contusions around her hip and lower back" requiring a night at the hospital to ensure everything stays stable.
"It was a scary one," she wrote. "I was super lucky and I mostly just will be sore for a while but everything should be good!"
This would have been the fourth Olympic final to feature Gremaud and Gu, had Gremaud not been injured. They both reached the podium in each of their first three meetings and, before tonight, had won all three gold medals in those events.
Saturday’s qualifying marked Gu’s first big air contest since her gold in 2022. The 22-year-old will compete next in halfpipe, her third event of the Games. The first of three training days for halfpipe was happening simultaneous to and about 200 years away from Monday's big air final.
Women's freeski big air final
🥇 Megan Oldham, Canada (180.75)
🥈 Eileen Gu, China (179.00)
🥉 Flora Tabanelli, Italy (178.25)
4. Kirsty Muir, Great Britain (174.75)
5. Lara Wolf, Austria (169.75)
6. Naomi Urness, Canada (168.75)
7. Liu Mengting, China (166.00)
8. Anni Karava, Finland (164.25)
9. Maria Gasslitter, Italy (159.25)
10. Kateryna Kotsar, Ukraine (156.00)
DNS Mathilde Gremaud, Switzerland
DNS Anouk Andraska, Switzerland