Everyone loves an underdog story. Going into the women’s big air event, Eileen Gu was the favourite to get her first Gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics after winning the silver in free ski slopestyle. She already had 4 medals in freestyle skiing, including a big air gold in 2022. On the other hand, Megan Oldham was coming off a 4th place finish in Beijing. However, Oldham broke the narrative, defeating Gu for the Gold Medal in Milano Cortina. 

Oldham topped the field, finishing the competition with 180.75 points, just ahead of Eileen Gu (179.00) of China. The key to Oldham’s win was her first run, scoring a strong 91.75. From then on, everyone was playing catch-up. Oldham scored a solid 89 in the second. She fell in the third round, but it was not counted in the final scores since big air counts best of 2. Eileen tried her best, scoring 89.0 on her third after 90 in her first. After the upset win, Oldham emphasised that the 2022 heartbreak was important in her Milano-Cortina glory. 

“I think in Beijing, it was a hard reality for me knowing that I had done my best performance there and that it just came down to my tricks simply not being technical enough to be up on that podium,” she said.

Going up against Eileen Gu, Oldham needed to up her game. She is widely regarded as one of the most technical jumpers in the history of women’s freestyle skiing. Gu is the first female skier to land a double cork 1440. She also won the Beijing 2022 big air by landing a double cork 1620 safety, which had 4.5 spins with two off-axis rotations. 

“I think coming into this Olympics, I didn’t want to have that same feeling. So I spent a lot of time really focusing and putting energy into trying to learn some new tricks that not many girls necessarily do,” Oldham said.“ And something that’s just like really technically done and executed very well because I think that’s also what we’re seeing in skiing right now is the girls are so good that you need to execute your new skills perfectly.”

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At the 2026 finals, Oldham started with a backwards entry for a switch double cork 1260 with a safety grab. On her second run, she pulled off a double cork 1260 with a mute grab. On the other hand, Gu stomped her opening right double cork 1440. She then missed the tail grab, nearly going down on her second-run left double cork 1260.  It was a trick she said she learned recently during training. Gu managed to land it in the final attempt, but it was not good enough to catch Oldham. But what made the victory even more remarkable was the physical toll she quietly endured behind the scenes.

Megan Oldham Reveals Injury After Winning Olympic Gold

Megan Oldham’s freeski slopestyle bronze did not come easy. In her second run, she couldn’t stick the final landing and lay motionless in the snow for a while. Oldham limped off the course. And while she compensated in the third run and won the bronze, that injury flared up after the event concluded. 

“I knew that I’d be determined no matter what to get out there, but honestly, the first couple of days of training on the big air, I was in a lot of pain,” Oldham said. “I got a hematoma on my quad, so it’s been pretty seized up, but I was going to do everything to be out here and showcase my skiing.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, a hematoma happens when you have blood pooling somewhere inside your body. Depending upon the intensity of the injury, it can cause a limited range of motion, stiffness, or weakness if it’s intramuscular, and the swelling restricts movement or compresses nearby structures. Playing through this injury makes Oldham’s gold medal even more impressive.