Men's ski cross, the penultimate freeski event at Milan Cortina 2026, closed out with a bang. In a series of snowy races where skiers made frequent contact in tight passes, it was Italian Simone Deromedis who stormed across the finish line to claim the Olympic title in men's ski cross.
Teammate Federico Tomasoni and Switzerland's Alex Fiva followed closely behind in a photo finish. Tomasoni narrowly won Olympic silver with an outstretched finger. Fiva took bronze. Japan's Satoshi Furuno, who impressed Livigno as the second seed, ended in 4th.
"I didn't care about the photo finish, I ran to my friends and said, 'I'm second or third,'" Tomasoni said. "Better second, for sure, but the medal was there, I ran to my friends and it was cool."
Deromedis, who only just missed a spot in the big final at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was hungry for gold after finishing 1st in the small final in Beijing. He and Tomasoni won Italy's first ski cross medals.
"For the first time in history we did the first race of the season, one or two, the double podium is absolute, and to do it at the Olympics, I want to say it's great, better than this, we couldn't go [better]," Deromedis said.
"It was crazy," Tomasoni said. "To share the medal with a friend, a big friend. And here is like my second home. There are many people here for us, for me. It's really a dream coming true, but we don't realize it [yet]."
Olympic gold eluded Fiva — who won silver at Beijing in 2022 — for a second Olympics. Fiva, 40, is the oldest men's freeski medalist, breaking his own record that was set when he won at the Beijing Games.
"It was a really tough race," Fiva said. "It was crazy, exhausting. My legs were burning after the first round."
In a shocking upset, Canadian heavy gold medal favorite Reece Howden was eliminated in the first heat of the quarterfinals. He nearly made contact with Tomasoni when Tomasoni made an inside pass, slowing Howden down. He then landed on the knuckle of a roller, losing even more momentum. He finished last in the heat.
There were plenty of other exciting moments. In the sixth heat of the Round of 32, Canadian Jared Schmidt appeared to get close to Swedish Erik Mobaerg, causing the Swede to crash off course. Schmidt streaked ahead to a photo finish with Fiva as the first and second athletes to cross the finish line. After review, Schmidt was issued a yellow card, which had him "ranked as last." Czech Daniel Paulus, who crossed the finish last, qualified for the quarterfinals instead.
"Contact from behind was the call for the yellow card." Schmidt said. "It baffled me because I was behind [Erik Mobaerg] far enough that I don't even think I touched his skis. He definitely felt that there was contact. But from what I saw, it was actually the Swiss athlete beside him [Fiva] merging into the gate. And then I hopped over the skis of the Swedish athlete in front of me."
In the following heat, Erik Mobaerg's brother, David Mobaerg, made contact with Frenchman Evan Klufts. David Mobaerg crashed and did not finish, while Klufts continued to the finish line. It was later ruled that Klufts did not finish the race.
The drama continued into the semifinals. Ryan Regez of Switzerland, the defending Olympic gold medalist, was eliminated in a thrilling second heat. Despite getting an early lead, he caught a knuckle and lost crucial momentum. He later made contact with German Tim Hronek, resulting in Regez receiving a yellow card and being ranked as last. He did not continue to the small final.
"That was unsportsmanlike behavior from me," Regez said. "The box before I was a bit short, I pressed it a little less than in the heat before, but it was still too slow. I knuckled hard, jumped too far, I think I even caught a pole with Tim, the German, and then I was just leaning on him and just blocking him. It wasn't nice, it wasn't clean."
"I'm an advocate for clean and good sports and that was a horrible behavior from my side, so I apologize from all my heart," Regez continued.
In the small final, it was Terence Tchiknavorian, who breezed to the finish line first, with Germans Hronek and Florian Wilmsmann taking 2nd and 3rd (6th and 7th overall) in a photo finish.
No Americans competed in this event.
Men's Ski Cross Medalists
🥇Simone Deromedis (ITA)
🥈Federico Tomasoni (ITA)
🥉Alex Fiva (SUI)