Megan Oldham is the third Canadian to earn multiple medals at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.
The freestyle skier scored a combined 180.75 points in her best two of three runs for gold in the women’s big air final to defeat Chinese superstar Eileen Gu (179) on Monday in Italy. They hugged before stepping on the medal podium.
On Feb. 9, Oldham captured bronze in women’s slopestyle, the 24-year-old’s first medal at a Winter Games.
Mikaël Kingsbury (dual moguls gold, moguls silver) and short track speed skater Courtney Sarault (2,000m mixed relay silver, 1,000 silver, 500 bronze) are the other athletes with more than one medal for Canada, which has 11 overall.
Four years ago in Beijing, Oldham missed the podium, placing fourth in big air and 13th in slopestyle.
“I definitely felt like I left that Games a bit hungry to show more at this next Games,” the native of Parry Sound, Ont., said in a recent story on nbcolympics.com, “because I do feel like there was more potential for me to do better.”
Megan Oldham captures Canada’s 2nd gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026
In big air, skiers get three jumps and must land two. Their scores include points for difficulty and execution.
Oldham locked up gold with her first two jumps. She had an inconsequential fall on her third jump, the last of the final, which became a victory lap.
On Saturday, Oldham qualified first for the final, compiling 171.75 points, one more than Gu, who had not competed in big air since her 2022 Olympic victory.
Oldham, who captured 2023 world bronze in big air, has 11 career World Cup podiums, including four victories.
Italy’s Flora Tabanelli (178.25) took bronze on Monday at Livigno Snow Park four months after a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee, while Oldham’s teammate, Naomi Urness of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was sixth in her Olympic debut.
Earlier this season, the 21-year-old Urness reached the medal podium in the first three World Cup events she entered in November/December — Secret Garden, China (silver), Beijing (bronze) and Steamboat Springs, Colo. (gold).
Her first World Cup win came Dec. 13 when she defeated Ukraine’s Kateryna Kotsar.
The initial final field of 12 was reduced by two after Mathilde Gremaud and Anouk Andraska, both of Switzerland, got hurt practising jumps before the final. Gremaud, who defended her Olympic slopestyle title last week, hurt her hip and was taken off the course on a stretcher. She had qualified third for Monday’s big air final. Andraska hurt her wrist.
