FREESKIER's 5 Favorite 2026 Winter Olympic Slopestyle & Big Air Moments

Featured Image: Courtesy of U.S. Ski Team | Skier: Mac Forehand

It has been an entertaining Winter Olympics to watch, so far. The men's and women's slopestyle and big air events required the absolute best from every athlete and the contentious qualifiers forced perfection in order to snag one of the coveted 12 spots in finals.

When it's the best against the best, and less than half of the field moves on to compete for a medal, there are moments that will be burned into our brains forever in pursuit of Olympic glory. Just for fun, we collected our crew's top five favorite Olympic moments, below, to make sure they're etched in our archives for good measure.

17-Year-Old Avery Krumme The Only U.S. Woman to Advance to Slopestyle Finals

Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Ski Team | Skier: Avery Krumme

The youngest woman on the U.S. Slopestyle and Big Air team, Avery Krumme pulled off an impressive qualification run to land herself in fourth place at the end of qualifications with a score of 64.93. With best score out of two runs, 26 women dropped into the slopestyle course on February 7 but only 12 moved on to finals. Teammate Rell Harwood did not compete due to a knee injury and Grace Henderson and Marin Hamill failed to land a run with a score high enough to place them in the top 12. At just 17 years old, Krumme was the sole woman representing the United States in slopestyle finals. She gave it her all, finishing a respectable 11th for the young one's first Olympic experience. We're excited to see her progress in the years to come.

Luca Harrington's Medal-Clinching Final Run in Men's Slopestyle

At 21 years old, Luca Harrington dropped into his first-ever Olympic event in the men's slopestyle qualifications on February 7. He came out swinging and confident in qualifications, lacing an impressive and technical rails section, including a wild flat spin screamin seaman off the canon feature, to place him in ninth and a secured spot in finals. On finals day, the men had three chances to down a clean and complete slopestyle run and it took until the third and final run for Harrington to lace it all together but it was worth the wait. A near-perfect rails section with a 630 on and that screamin seaman off the cannon rail followed by a switch triple cork 1440 bringback earning the kiwi a bronze medal in his first Olympics.

Eileen Gu's Historic Silver Medal in Big Air

Eileen Gu returned to the Olympic Big Air qualifications on February 14 as the reigning Olympic champion from 2022 but that was literally the last time Gu competed in the discipline. Focusing primarily on slopestyle and halfpipe the last four years, big air is arguably the least of Gu's concerns. Despite the extensive time away from the event, Gu proved her prowess from slopestyle and halfpipe carries over. After qualifying second, behind Canada's Megan Oldham, Gu came out swinging on her first finals run with a right double cork 1440. Her second run was a wash with a missed grab and sketchy landing so the pressure was on for her third and final run to secure her fifth Olympic freeski medal. A left double cork 1260 with a controlled tail grab secured the silver medal for Gu, and the historic accolade of being the first freeski athlete to collect five Olympic medals. She has yet to compete in halfpipe, at the time of this article.

Mac Forehand's Never-Been-Done Nose Butter Triple Cork 2160

Photo: Courtesy of U.S. Ski Team | Skier: Mac Forehand

If the pressure of the Olympics gets to some athletes, Mac Forehand is definitely not one of them. After qualifying for the men's Olympic Big Air final in first place, the U.S. freeskier doubled down on his pursuit of not only perfection, but progression. Scoring a 95 on his first two runs in finals—the best two scores out of three count—with a switch 2160 on his first run and a nose butter triple cork 1980 on his second, Forehand was in great position for a silver medal. Hungry for gold, Forehand laid down a never-been-done nose butter triple cork 2160. The trick ultimately earned him the silver, behind Norway's Tormod Frostad, but forever etched his name in the Olympic history books.

Mathilde Gremaud's Iconic Slopestyle Victory Lap

Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud is the reigning slopestyle queen from the 2022 Beijing Games and she showed up in Livigno, Italy, hungry to maintain that title against Eileen Gu and the rest of the stacked slopestyle field. After run one, Gu had the tiniest upper hand on Gremaud for the top spot but when Gu failed to improve her score on run two, Gremaud swooped in and sneaked out a score less than a full point ahead of Gu. The last to drop on run three, Gremaud knew she won the competition when Gu once again failed to improve her score and took advantage of the opportunity to put on a show for the crowd. With a Swiss flag tied around her neck, the freeskier laid out a massive superman on the final jump and simultaneously became the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic Slopestyle golds. Our modern-day superwoman.