Olympics
Team USA has claimed a dominant victory in the Mixed Team Aerials at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy, successfully defending the title it won at the event’s Olympic debut in Beijing in 2022. The gold marks a significant redemption for the American aerials squad after no U.S. athletes won a medal in the individual competition earlier in the Games.
For 2026, Team USA consisted of Chris Lillis, Kaila Kuhn and Connor Curran, who advanced to Final 2 in first place after Final 1. Seven teams competed in Final 1, with the top four progressing to Final 2. Joining the United States in the medal round were China in second, Australia in third, and Switzerland in fourth.
Australia emerged as a surprise finalist as it was the only team to field two women and one man, while the other nations selected two men and one woman. The difference reflects the technical ceiling in the sport: men are currently the only athletes landing quintuple-twisting jumps in competition, and only a small number of women consistently land quadruple-twisting tricks at the international level. However, Australia simply does not have male skiers that can land high difficulty jumps.
The scoreboard is reset for Final 2, meaning every jump must be landed cleanly to remain in medal contention. Scores are awarded for air, form and landing, with form accounting for 50%, landing 30% and air 20% of the total, which is then multiplied by the degree of difficulty. Under that pressure, Kuhn, Curran and Lillis stomped their landings, combining for 325.35 points to secure gold ahead of Switzerland on 296.91.
Lillis delivered a back double full-full-full for 117.19 points, while Curran added 113.72 and Kuhn 94.44 to seal the win. “All of us came in so motivated after that individual event because it didn’t really go any of our ways,” Kuhn said. “We came in today motivated and strong as ever. We did some of the best jumps we’ve ever done and put it down when it counted.”
Switzerland’s Pirmin Werner and Noé Roth produced the highest-scoring individual jumps of the final, earning 123.00 and 129.54 respectively. However, Lina Kozomara’s lower score proved costly, leaving the Swiss short of the Americans’ total. Roth was the individual silver medal winner earlier in the Games and is taking home two silver medals from the 2026 Games now.
Meanwhile, China’s Xindi Wang and Tianma Li attempted jumps with the highest degree of difficulty in the field at 5.1, but neither managed to land cleanly, resulting in significant deductions. With landing worth 30% of the score, the errors dropped China into third place. Wang is the gold medal winner and Li the bronze medal winner of the individual competition, while their third team member Mengtao Xu had won the women’s individual gold.
Australia, led by individual silver medallist Danielle Scott, had advanced strongly through qualification but ultimately finished fourth in the medal round. Despite missing the podium, the result represented a significant achievement for a team that had not entered the Games as a clear medal favorite in the Mixed Team Aerials. Australia has several strong female aerial skiers but is still building up the men’s field.
The victory marks the United States’ 11th gold medal of the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Games, making it the most successful Winter Olympic campaign by gold medal count in American history.
