Olympics
The women’s freeskiing qualifying round went down on Saturday, February 7, in Livigno, Italy. This was the first look at the 2026 Milano-Cortina slopestyle course, which featured a healthy combination of challenging rails and massive jumps. The event saw a total of 26 riders take on the challenging course, and it was quite an entertaining event for those watching around the world.
The story of the event once again became Chinese-American Eileen Gu, who is widely considered one of the greatest women’s freeskiers of all time. Atypical of her usual runs, Gu went down early in the rails section of the slopestyle course, putting pressure on her to land her second run.
In Gu’s second run, she put down a heater, topped off with a corked 900 (two and a half full spins), earning her a score of 75.30 and securing her a spot in the finals. This will be Gu’s second appearance in an Olympic slopestyle finals, after she took silver in 2022 in Beijing.
Gu, who competes for China since 2022, was not the only skier to make waves in the event, as Team USA’s Avery Krumme qualified for the final after finishing in fourth place. Krumme, who is only 17 years old, was the only member of Team USA to qualify for the final in this event.
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud has an excellent qualifying round as well. Gremaud opened up her day with a clean first run and a score of 76.68. She would go on to improve that score in her second run and earn a 79.15, ending her run on the most difficult trick of the round: a double-cork 1260 (three and a half full spins). Gremaud took home the top two scores of the day and will enter the final having finished first in the qualifying round with a target on her back.
The qualifying round ended with Switzerland’s Gremaud in first, China’s Gu in second, and Great Britain’s Kirsty Muir in third place. Hot on the trail was Team USA’s Krumme, who finished in fourth.
The women’s freeski slopestyle finals round will take place on Monday, February 9, at 6:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
