Kirsty Muir soared agonisingly close to her first Winter Olympic medal but had to settle for a second fourth-place finish in the women’s Big Air final at Livigno Snow Park.
Nudged out of the podium positions by Italy’s Flora Tabanelli with just herself and leader Megan Oldham of Canada to go, Muir sought to snatch back a top-three slot with a brand new trick, but crashed to earth.
But a tearful Muir, who also placed fourth in the women’s slopestyle final one week ago, insisted she had no regrets after a high-quality competition in which Oldham edged out Chinese superstar Eileen Gu, with Tabanelli taking bronze.
In an event in which each competitor has three jumps and the cumulative total of the best two count, Muir said of her third jump: “I knew I really had to go for it.
“I went for the 1620 again, but I wanted to get a tail-grab in there and that was the thing I knew would give me the best chance of getting on to the podium.
“I’m really stoked that I went for it. I’ve never tried that before, so just to go and give it a sling, I’m really proud of myself.”
Strong winds and blizzard conditions had delayed the start of the final by over an hour, but Muir’s hopes of contesting the podium once again were improved by the news that Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, the winner of the slopestyle event, had been forced to withdraw after a crash in training.
Muir placed sixth after the opening round but landed a massive 1620 on her second jump, scoring 93.0 – the third biggest of the competition – to rocket up to second place at the end of round two.
Gu, the world’s highest-paid sportswoman outside tennis, went into the final having become embroiled in a row with the International Ski Federation over its refusal to allow her extra time to train for the halfpipe.
Gu is the only female athlete attempting to compete in slopestyle, in which she won a silver medal last Monday, Big Air and halfpipe. She hit out at the decision and said the FIS was “punishing excellence”.
Inevitably, Gu moved up into the podium places with her second attempt, nudging Muir down into bronze-medal position before a stunning 94.25 from Italy’s world champion Tabanelli forced the Scot to upgrade in order to return to the top three.
Going for broke, she fell on landing, confirming gold for Oldham, who did not need her final jump. For Great Britain, it was a painful fifth fourth place of the Games so far.
Evidently disappointed by another medal near-miss, Muir was nevertheless able to reflect on a strong comeback after missing almost all of the 2024 season with a serious ACL injury.
“It was only a year and a month ago that I came back to competing in the World Cups and I’ve been so stoked with how I’ve been since then,” added Muir, who raised expectations for the Olympics after winning Big Air silver at the prestigious Aspen X Games last month.
“I just have to take that with me and appreciate that. This is the highest level of competition and I’m stoked to be a part of a competition where the girls are absolutely killing it and we’re really pushing the sport.”
