Never mind the medals. American Alex Hall is at his third Olympics because he loves to ski. He just wants to land the runs he planned and move on to the next ski spot he’s dreamed about. The medals are just something extra.
Nevertheless, Hall won silver in the men’s freeski slopestyle contest on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at Milan Cortina 2026. He’s got just the place for the medal: in his sock drawer, next to the gold he won at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Coming into Livigno, Hall didn’t feel as if he had to defend his Olympic freeski slopestyle title.
“It's cool I got a medal four years ago, but I'm just here to ride. I'm not really thinking like I've got to defend it. There's nothing really to defend. I'm just going out to ski and have some fun," Hall said.
It's pretty clear he enjoyed himself. Hall needed just one run to reach the podium — his second of three scored 85.75. On a slopestyle course that included the hardest rail section the riders have faced, according to Hall, it was the only run Hall landed cleanly.
"I wasn't sure I could do the run,” he said of his difficult plan for the rails. He’d been unable to put it all together in practice. But he managed to pull out what Hall described as the "best best rail run I've ever done" when it mattered.
The Olympic slopestyle course posed a challenge — something Hall constantly seeks. Despite most of the field falling on their runs, giving Hall a high possibility of making it onto the podium with a less difficult run, Hall wasn’t interested in toning anything down.
“[The run I landed] was the run I had planned,” Hall said.
The competition was stacked, and he knew he had to go for broke. And why not when you already have a gold medal in your sock drawer at home?
“I was just gonna try my hardest run possible, which is what worked out,” Hall said.
His silver medal win may feel even sweeter than his gold in Beijing; this time, his family and friends were waiting for him at the bottom of the hill. Hall’s mother is from Bologna, Italy, so many of his friends and family came in for the day just to see Hall.
“Having them at the bottom was awesome. I didn't see them throughout practice [or] any of my first runs ‘cause we're so locked in and you're kind of almost separated from the crowd,” Hall said. “But once it was all said and done, it was so cool to go and see my parents. That was super, super special ... I missed that in Beijing.”
Now at his third Winter Olympics, Hall is more comfortable and appreciative of competing on the world stage. He made his Olympic debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics at 19.
“You just kind of learn to take some things in more and really appreciate what’s going on," he said. "‘Cause when you’re really young, like especially [at] my first one, I feel like maybe I missed out on that a little bit.”
Whenever Hall has time at these Games, he and the rest of the men’s slopestyle/big air team watch other Olympic events.
“It’s been pretty fun [to] soak it all in ‘cause it’s pretty rare that we get to watch all these events with so many special athletes,” Hall reflected.
Aside from gaining confidence, learning new tricks and enjoying the Olympic experience to its fullest — including enjoying the freshly made pizzas and hot and cold tubs at the athlete spa — Hall doesn’t think he’s changed much during the past eight years.
“[I’m] still the same old guy who loves skiing. Just doing it for the love of it,” Hall said.
His next challenge? The men’s freeski big air competition with qualification on Sunday, Feb. 15. He’ll be spending the next few days perfecting his tricks.
“It’s not gonna be easy. Everyone’s got such crazy tricks nowadays … but it’s gonna be a fun challenge,” Hall said.
He has a few new tricks he’s keeping in his bag until the contest.
“There's a couple [of] tricks … that I've done once or twice before or, you know, thought of, but haven't really perfected. So the goal is [to] work on those and hopefully bring [them] out for the big air event.”
Although some athletes burn out from the stress and intensity of training for the Olympics, Hall looks forward to hitting more tricks once he returns to the U.S.
“[I] definitely want to do a lot of filming,” Hall said of his post-Olympic plans. “Whether it's in the back country filming powder skiing or street skiing in the cities, making YouTube videos and filming for a lot of my sponsors and my companies ... I'd love to be doing that at least for the rest of the season.”
That’s about as far as Hall’s planned, but wherever his more distant future takes him, “I'll definitely be skiing for a long time,” he said.
“We'll see how I'm feeling this summer … I love skiing and whatever kind of skiing that's gonna be, I'm not exactly sure, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Even when Hall is off the slopes, he’s dreaming of his next skiing adventure.
“I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Google Earth looking for spots. It's kind of like my obsession,” Hall confirmed.
Hall has friends that are currently filming in Pittsburgh, PA, after spending the past few weeks jibbing around the East Coast.
“I've been pretty jealous cause that's like my top, top city I want to go do some street skiing 'cause it's really hilly, so it [lends] itself really well to like a lot of handrails and just good stuff to ski down and, you know, film the tricks on.”
The dichotomy of Hall being jealous of his friends skiing on the streets of Pittsburgh while he competes in the Olympics is staggering — a true skier at heart, medals or not.
Watch what Hall has in store when the men’s big air qualifying begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 15. It can be seen live on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.