Gus Kenworthy threw down the mantle and produced his best Olympic performance in 12 years at Milano Cortina 2026.
The 34-year-old finished sixth in the men's freestyle skiing halfpipe with a best score of 84.75 in his second run.
It marked his best result since winning a silver medal in freeski slopestyle at Sochi 2014, under the banner of the USA, before switching allegiance to Team GB ahead of Beijing 2022.
The skier had not competed since that final four years ago where he finished ninth, having decided to make a comeback in spring of 2025.
After throwing down in his fourth consecutive Olympic final, Kenworthy jumped the fence to hug his loved ones while the competition was still ongoing in what was the ultimate showcase of joy.
And even though sixth was not the result he envisioned, there is always another Olympics on the horizon.
"It's hard to know how to feel, sixth feels so close, so I'm pretty bummed,” he said.
"The first run was a little but off and on the second run, I saw people weren't landing and every now and then you have a competition like that. I went a bit conservative to get a safe run down but then gave myself only one shot to go for it. In hindsight I should have probably given myself two tries for a full pull.
"I feel like there is not a difference of being sixth or 12th. Anyway, I am still happy to land a run."
"Being back in the Olympics is special, so I'll see you in four years."
The final started slowly in Livigno, with the whole field struggling to put down on clean run on their firsts.
Kenworthy then lit the flame with his second score but as the field caught up and jumped ahead, he was unable to improve on his third run and fell short of the medals.
The USA's Alex Ferreira completed his set of Olympic medals with gold, Estonia's Henry Sildaru just 0.75 behind for silver and Canada's Brendan Mackay in bronze.
Sportsbeat 2026