Megan Oldham captures bronze in women’s slopestyle skiing, winning Canada’s second Olympic medal

Open this photo in gallery:

To say Canada’s Megan Oldham was a long-shot contender for the podium in Olympic slopestyle skiing would have been cruel. She is talented and was hungry for a medal after almost reaching the podium in Beijing in 2022 in a different sport, big air.

But she and everyone else knew she was going up against formidable, high-wattage competition in the Milan Cortina Games, among them Chinese-American megastar Eileen Gu, who had won three freestyle medals in Beijing – silver in slopestyle and golds in halfpipe and big air. Other athletes who could easily block her podium run were Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, who nailed slopestyle gold in Beijing, and rising British freestyle star Kirsty Muir.

On Monday, Oldham fought well in a nail-biter of a competition for bronze in Livigno, one of the Olympic Alpine towns, narrowly beating Muir for the bronze. Gu took silver, a disappointment for her, and Gremaud, the defending champion, took gold in a dazzling, gravity-defying performance.

The Canadian contingent among the spectators, including Oldham’s parents, erupted in applause after her bronze was confirmed. They waved Canadian flags and “MG” posters. They were all the more happy since Oldham’s second of three runs in the final ended in near disaster.

Oldham, who is 24 and grew up in Parry Sound, Ont., got off to a fine start in the first of three runs in the final on a sunny day in Livigno. For most of the second run, she performed exceedingly well. But she flubbed her last jump by rushing the takeoff and landed hard as the audience gasped.

The slopestyle scoring system only measures the best two of the three runs, so, from a judging point of view, the crash did not matter. But no one knew at first whether she was injured, which would have made the third run impossible, or if her confidence had been shattered by the fall.

But she pulled herself together and her final run, while not brilliant, was enough to land her on the podium. She almost didn’t make it. Muir’s performance was better than fine and she finished a mere half a point behind the Canadian.

Opinion: If Eileen Gu seems to have it all, it’s because she does

After the medal ceremony, she told reporters that her fall left her in pain. She knew nothing was broken and was determined not to hold back in her third run, knowing she would be doomed if she did. “It’s really hard to reset after you have a crash like that,” she said. “It’s hard to figure out what exactly that moment meant mentally. I was happy I was able to collect myself.”

At that point, after her second-run crash, she pretty much knew that she was fighting for bronze against Muir. “Honestly, I did not think my first run would hold,” she said. “Kirsty is such a talented skier and she had such a good run. And I knew if she landed, I wouldn’t stand a chance, so I knew I had to win another one.”

She did, handing Canada its second medal of the Games, breaking what may have been a medal drought.

Slopestyle became an Olympic event in Sochi in 2014. It’s a strange sport, in the sense that it’s like running an obstacle course. The competitors must navigate rails and jumps and other potentially nasty terrain park features. Points are awarded for amplitude, technical difficulty of jumps and elegance of landings.

Competitors, who use double-tipped skis, often land backward after spinning through the air. The manoeuvres are crowd-pleasers even if the long course means that only the first two or three aerials can been seen on huge video screens.

Oldham’s mother, Bonnie, was one of the family members cheering her on in Livigno. Bonnie said she was certain her daughter would make the podium even though she had crashed recently and was recovering from a concussion, which kept her out of the action for six weeks.

Bonnie said she did not see her daughter on the morning of the race. “I wanted to give her a bit of space,” she said. “She had had a good training run said she was pumped, so I knew her chances were good.”

Open this photo in gallery: