Winter Olympics 2026: Elana Meyers Taylor wins monobob gold for USA; Canada’s Oldham lands freeski big air crown – live | Winter Olympics 2026
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Fair play to the Georgians. Great speed across the ice, dynamism in their number despite some very slow mournful French music. I’m in the cart too for the sparkly aquamarine numbers that they’re wearing to match. Superb lifts, Luka Berulava is a rock at the base of those, and Anastasiia Metelkina’s shape at the top of the lifts is immaculate. But she steps off the landing of one of their throws, so that will be a deduction, and there are a couple of other technical checks. The music shift for the second half of their program didn’t really gel with the first, for me, on the artistic front.
146.29! Which means 221.75 overall, which means they are in silver position now, probably bronze after the final pair skate, and Georgia will win its first ever Winter Olympic medal. Japan is guaranteed silver now, and could yet hang on for gold.
Here comes the last pair, for Germany.
Talk about Meatloaf and schmaltz, the Canadian pair are using the Gladiator theme music. My name ix Maximus Decimus Aurelius, father of a murdered triple axel attempt. Oh, and there is a stumble! First Lia Pereira, a small miss of her footing that she recovers, then a couple of moves later, a hand-down slip from Trennt Michaud. Two reds there, and a yellow on their death spiral spin as they come out of it early. That’s a shame, they’ve been thrown off. They recover through a strong lift section, they’ve been brave, and they embrace each other with tenderness in their disappointment. They’ve had a very high finish in this comp, without getting everything right in their last run. They’ll be out of the medals…
it’s 125.06 for the round, and 199.66 in sixth spot overall right now. A personal best combined score for them, well done.
It also means that Japan are on the podium for that wonder-skate. They can’t finish lower than third now.
Very strong technical skate from Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko for Hungary. Green boxes across the screen, which means no complaints from the technical committee. I’m still going to say, I didn’t get as much sense of emotion or flair from this pair as some others, it was far from the most interesting routine to watch, even though nothing went wrong. The judges say…
Not quite! Not enough for the lead. Still a great score, 131.39 is a personal best, and they’re in second spot with three pairs to go.
Basically the last four pairs of figure skaters need to score about 156, or in the case of the leading Germans, 152, to go past the Japanese score on combined points. That’s what we’re watching out for.
Here’s Pawel Smrek writing in to clarify the ski jumping situation, thanks Pawel.
“Due to heavy snow which significantly reduced descent speeds, the third round of jumps was cancelled and the points accrued after the second round determined the final standings. There were 13 out of 16 possible jumps taken in the third round, however the jury thought that the conditions deteriorated so significantly that the final three jumpers would’ve been at an unfair disadvantage.”
Beau Dure writes in. “Elana Meyers Taylor had a couple of world championships, a lot of World Cup successes and five Olympic medals, but until five minutes ago, she didn’t have Olympic gold.”
The last four warming up in the skating: Hungary, Canada, Georgia, Germany.
In the ice hockey semis, Canada’s women are leading Switzerland 2-0 in the second period.
Stunning skate from Japan! Miura Riku and Kihara Riyuichi are perfection. They had a stutter in the first round that saw them finish fifth coming into this round, where normally they would be expecting to be in the top couple, so they have a lot of ground to make up. Miura is tiny, so Kihara is able to throw her around with ease. He’s spinning her on top of his upstretched arm like she’s a pizza base. Their solo jump sequence is in sync, then she lands his throws with such assurance. They pull out all the stops going into the closing sequence, a dizzying (literally) display of spins and lifts.
They score a staggering 158.13. That’s nearly 23 points higher than the next best in this round. Overall they’re on 231, with their lower score from the first round. They, like some others, sink to the ice with relief on realising how perfectly they’ve performed in that round. There are still four pairs to go, and normally you’d expect the medals to come from the last few, but that might have been a gold medal skate.
Now we’re back to the figure skating pairs. China currently leading, Italy second, with five scores yet to come in.
To recap the curling, the Swiss came back beat GB in the women’s team round robin match, Korea beat China, Canada beat Japan, and Italy got their first win over the USA.
That leaves Sweden unbeaten at the top of the group, then Korea, Switzerland, USA all on four wins. Three games to go, so in theory any of the ten teams could still qualify.
Elana Meyers-Taylor pinches US gold in the monobob!
Four hundredths of a second separate gold and silver, but it’s not in the order you’d expect. Meyers Taylor had the second-last run, but got home in 59.51. Laura Nolte of Germany was last, and had to hold her lead, but a couple of tiny clips of the wall might have cost her. It was a very good run, 59.70 overall, but just enough to slip into silver position. She’s disappointed, while Meyers-Taylor leaps around the waiting area with her young son and her bronze-winning teammate, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries. Elana Meyers Taylor, at 41 years of age and after several years out of the sport to have kids, has come back to win gold.
Gold for Canada in the women’s big air, Kirsty Muir just missing the podium
Meg Oldham falls, looking for the switch left double 14 mute grab, a monster trick attempt on her last run, but it does not matter. She’s last to jump, she’s already in top spot, and Megan Oldham wins gold for Canada.
Eileen Gu runs out to embrace her, the Chinese skier looking absolutely delighted with a silver medal. She was ice cold on her third jump to get into that second spot from absolutely nowhere.
And Flora Tabanelli the home slope medallist, bronze for Italy with a similarly nerveless jump for 94.25, the highest score of the whole night, on her final jump.
A long chat with her coach at the top of the slope for Muir, deciding what to try. She needs to improve her score. Snow falling across her goggles. She closes her eyes and takes a beat. Forward facing, looking for the double 14 tailgrab… and she skids out on the landing! Just hit the snow so hard and those skis slip out. She’s a dejected figure as she picks herself up and walks off the course, having occupied the gold medal spot for a brief moment.
Kirsty Muir will have to go big for a medal. There’s a 1680 rotation for Flora Tabenelli, four and a half rotations for the Italian, lands the jump switch, scores a 94, and it boosts her from fourth to third. Now we’re getting hot. Multiple skiers landing 16s tonight. Goodness me.
Heavy landing for Maria Gaslitter, she loses her rotation and lands on her shoulder and back, but thankfully bounces right back up and is smiling by the time she reaches the bottom of the run. Tried to go big to improve, and couldn’t make it happen.
Anni Karava similarly loses her landing and won’t improve for Finland in the ski big air.
Cleanest run of the day from Australia’s Bree Walker, she goes top of the standings for now with seven racers to come, so at worst a finish of eighth – might have been higher if not for some errors on her first run, but that’s the strictness of this discipline, there are no throwaway scores in the sled.
Bree Walker about to take off in the monobob. Stand by.
Eileen Gu into silver! Left double 12 with a tailgrab, the defending champ lands it clean after a poor second score by her standards. She scores an 89! Less than two points behind Oldham, and Muir is into bronze by now, but has another jump to come.
Everyone is sticking their landings in round three of the big air. Naomi Urness with an 82, Liu Mengting a 76, and Lara Wolf a 76 so far. They’ve all improved their overall score, with the best two scores combined. Not podium though, they’re fourth, fifth and sixth so far.
Men’s super team ski jumping is cancelled
The weather has ended the night of jumps, with heavy snow and wind. That means, if I understand correctly, that Austria, Poland, and Norway get awarded the medals by the judges based on points accrued. If you have a better handle on this, let me know by email.
Wooooof! Only for Megan Oldham to sneak past her with the next jump, the last one of the final round. The young Canadian does three and a half rotations, mute grab, lands it backwards. It doesn’t score as high as Muir, it’s an 89, but Oldham’s big score from jump one gives her the lead by six points. That’s going to be very hard to beat.
Oldham, Muir, Tabanelli in the podium spots with a round to go.
Kirsty Muir goes into the gold medal spot! Plenty of jumps left to go, but that is a massive, massive trick – a 1680 rotation double cork, and she sticks the landing! One glove down as she lands, but nailing something that big, the judges are going to love the degree of ambition. She scores a 93.00, second biggest score of the night, and combined with her solid first score it puts her top of the pops.
Italy now top two in the women’s freestyle skiing big air. Flora Tabanelli sticks a reverse landing to go top.
The women’s monobob final heat has begun as well, this time ordered slowest to fastest on the combined times for the previous three heats. Four racers out of 20 have gone down.
We’re into the second jumps now, so let’s stay here and come back to the skating later. Lara Wolf of Austria falls on her second jump, she’ll have a third to make amends though. Maria Gaslitter is leading for Italy. Six out of ten skiers are yet to jump second though. Naomi Urness, for Canada, falls as well.
(If you’re not sure what this sport is, they’re going down a massive ramp, off a massive jump, and doing various twists and spins mid air to get scored by judges.)
The women’s big air final has got going in the meantime, despite the weather. Heavy snow still. Kirsty Muir for GB has landed a solid 81.75 on her first jump.
What a finish from the Germans! Tight routine from Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel to begin: they’re in sync, and it looks strong rather than exciting to begin with. But their creative flair comes more and more to the fore as it goes, starting with a back outside death spiral, to have a point of difference to the other spirals we’ve seen, and then their choreo element that involves a dazzling acrobatic sequence as Kunkel holds Hocke by one ankle and one wrist and aeroplanes her around and around in a twirling circle, sometimes so low that she seems about to skim the ice, sometimes up at shoulder height. Somehow the judges find a couple of quibbles with technical elements – a catch from one of the throws was too low, yada yada – but that was by far the most spectacular routine so far, it got the crowd jumping at the end.
My only deduction: using Meatloaf as musical backing. Figure skating music choices are almost always so bland.
Here’s an unlikely cultural combo in the figure skating: an Armenian pair doing an Indian-themed routine using the music from Slumdog Millionaire. She’s wearing a miniaturised skating version of a sari, he has a slimmed down shortened kurta. Karina Akopova lands a stunning throw triple lutz! She nearly hit the ceiling there, and still pins it on one skate. A couple of stumbles on the jumps though will bring down the score, and she looks frustrated as she comes off, though her partner Nikita Rakhmanin has a big smile. Their dance section was original, I’m not sure that the whole routine flowed together though. But something different, which takes courage.
Italy leading the US in the women’s curling, and 4-1 is a spicy scoreline in the 7th end. GB is up on the Swiss 4-3, Canada leading Japan, and Korea leading China.
Weather delays at the ski jumping too, they’re doing a gate change rather than postponing the whole event. There is reasonably dense snow falling.
Great Britain’s team up now, Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby. Absolutely crisp synchronisation on their triple toeloop (where they spin upright side by side). Everyone has had a stumble so far, though, and both of them nearly fall on a double axel spin. They’re doing a more low-key musical approach, using The Cinematic Orchestra as backing. They clock in at 112.99 for this round, the lowest score so far, though their score from the first round has them third of fourth overall.
A short break follows to get the next four pairs warmed up, with 16 pairs in the final.
We have our final eight teams for the men’s super team ski jumping. The order will be USA, Switzerland, Japan, Slovenia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Austria.
Aesthetics for Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps: she’s in a red silk choker dress, he’s got a glittery burgundy brocade number with a piratical cummerbund. Some sort of tango passion vibe for the Canadians. They go early with a split triple twist, he tosses her high in the air twirling like a majorette’s baton. Later, in what is supposed to a two-part sequence, she can’t complete it – she doesn’t fall, but has to forgo the second jump in order to stay up. Otherwise, they nail it, and for Deanna, this is an athlete who has reached the Olympic final level again at the age of 42, having spent 16 years retired from the sport before mounting a comeback.
They score a 126, best of the three so far.
A lovely moment from Poland, as Ioulia Chtchetinina collapses to the ice – but only after the routine is done. She’s come back from injuries that cost her the last Winter Olympics, and has just completed an error-free skate with Michal Wozniak, and as she sinks to the floor she’s laughing and crying at the same time. A couple of their lifts were not of the most complex variety, and there are some minor deductions for technical flaws, but they score 120 to the Kovalevs 113.
The worst thing about figure skating, and maybe the best, is that you can watch a couple of people do the most outrageously impossible stuff you’ve ever seen in your life, and then a judge is like, “oh, your head was not lower than your knee while you were bent over backwards spinning around in 17 circles” and they dock scores.
For France, it’s the Kovalevs to begin, Camille and Pavel. Very fun routine, they do a rock and roll theme, black leather and some Beatles and some White Stripes. Camille has a fall early on that costs them some points, but probably makes some back with a triple salchow throw that she lands divinely – so, the feller has hurled her into a spinning rotation mid air, she’s done three spins and then landed on one skate as cleanly as a bread knife going into a new loaf. Such flair. She gives the crowd a rev-up motion as she feels the landing stick.
Right, it’s time for figure skating! My favourite winter sport, and soon to be yours if I have anything to do with it. This is the free skating part of the pairs event, and medals will be won tonight.
The final heat is set for the women’s bobsled, with the top 20 competitors going through. The four heat times will be counted cumulatively. Germany sit first and fourth via current leader Laura Nolte and Lisa Buckwitz, and the Americans are second, third and fifth thanks to Elana Meyers Taylor, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, and Kaysha Love. Australia’s Bree Walker is eighth.
In short, it’s hard for a racer to make up much time unless those ahead of them make serious mistakes.
The second round of the men’s super team ski jumping runs as follows: Kazakhstan, Italy, USA, France, Switzerland, Finland, Poland, Norway, Germany, Japan, Slovenia, Austria.
Weather threatens the women’s big air final
Per the Reuters update: “The start of the women’s big air competition at the Winter Olympics was delayed on Monday because of heavy snow in the Italian mountain town of Livigno. Organizers were awaiting further weather updates to determine if the event can take place later on Monday, a spokesperson for the Livigno Snow Park said.
It’s a tough sliding track. We saw some of the luge participants struggle on those corners, but the monobobs are much heavier and harder to manoeuvre. Several racers now have clipped the walls or come up high enough on the curves to hit the wooden ceiling. Lots of wobbles, the noses of the sleds sniffing about. The first few corners are where most of the trouble is.
Women’s big air skiing delayed by snow
Weather delay in the freeski Big Air for the women’s final. Three runs per competitor, but we haven’t started the first. It’s snowing fairly heavily and there’s enough wind speed to concern the officials.
Sean Ingle reports from the venue:
The temporary press tent where the hardened members of the press corp are working is being blown and buffeted about. And, more importantly, such is the level of snow by the Big Air ramp in Livigno it is almost impossible to see. Yet the competition has not been postponed … yet. We are delayed for a second time until 8pm GMT.
We’re into the third heat in the women’s monobob. Australia’s Bree Walker was bullish about medal prospects before the Games, but currently sitting 8th and adrift by a second and a half. The GB sledder is Adele Nicoll, back in 12th at the moment.
At the ski jump hill, we have 17 teams in the first round and 12 will qualify. This is the team event, so two jumpers per team. Of those who’ve had both jumps, the teams in the drop zone currently are Estonia, Ukraine, Turkey, China, and Romania.
