Norway's Birk Ruud denied American Alex Hall of a repeat gold medal Tuesday in a freeski slopestyle final that saw rail brilliance and bobbles at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.

The course's challenging rail section had many skiers attempting super progressive combos, creating a high-risk-high-reward situation — those who could hit the features clean were set up for big scores, while those who could not scrapped entire runs.

Ruud, the two-time reigning world champion, locked in early by laying down a statement first run that featured clean rails and dazzling airs: a switch rightside double cork 1800, a switch leftside double 1620 and a left nosebutter double 16. Hall came within about a half-point of Ruud on Run 2, putting down a picture-perfect rail section and solid jumps, but was unable to improve later on his final run.

"I knew I had to go all out, Hall said. "The talent's just so incredible among all the guys in the field. I knew it would take my best run that I could do.

"Whether it's gold, silver or bronze, I think I can assure you all the boys on the podium and everyone in the field is proud of themselves. I'm really proud of myself for the silver."

Luca Harrington, January's Winter X Games champion, threw down a clutch third run featuring a pull-back 1440 to 1260 on the last jump to vault into third for bronze.

Afterward, the 21-year-old's teammates honored him with a traditional haka dance, similar to the one snowboarding teammate Zoi Sadowski-Synnott received the night before after landing silver in big air.

"I think that wave of emotion that actually hit, that I was actually the bronze medalist, came from so deep inside of me," Harrington said. "It's come from my whole experience, my whole journey to get here."

Ruud now has two Olympic golds — he is the defending champion in big air from Beijing 2022.

Hall's teammates Konnor Ralph and Mac Forehand finished 9th and 11th, respectively. The trio all finished top 10 in Saturday's qualifying. Ruud's teammate Tormod Frostad, the No. 2 qualifier, finished 12th.

The U.S. has now won seven of 12 medals in the event's history. Ruud and Hall's finish matches the 1-2 Norway-U.S. result from 2018 when Oystein Braten and Nick Goepper took gold and silver.

Men's Freeski Slopestyle Final

🥇 Birk Ruud, Norway (86.28)
🥈 Alex Hall, United States (85.75)
🥉 Luca Harrington, New Zealand (85.15)
4. Andri Ragettli, Switzerland (78.65)
5. Jesper Tjader, Sweden (77.21)
6. Sebastian Schjerve, Norway (76.20)
7. Matej Svancer, Austria (73.71)
8. Ben Barclay, New Zealand (69.40)
9. Konnor Ralph, United States (66.76)
10. Kim Gubser, Switzerland (57.68)
11. Mac Forehand, United States (55.93)
12. Tormod Frostad, Norway (42.51)