In women’s freestyle skiing, Eileen Gu was the final boss. In Milan, Megan Oldham came to beat her. Four years after a heartbreaking fourth-place finish in Beijing, Oldham stood at the top of the ramp at the 2026 Winter Olympics with unfinished business. Gu entered the women’s big air final as the favourite – already a four-time Olympic medallist, including big air gold in 2022, and fresh off a silver in slopestyle earlier in the Games. The stage was set for another coronation.

Instead, it became a reckoning. Oldham opened with a massive first run, throwing down a 91.75 that immediately shifted the pressure onto the field. From that moment, everyone, including Gu, was chasing. Oldham followed it up with an 89.00 in her second run, giving her a two-score total of 180.75 under the best-two-of-three format. When she fell on her final attempt, it didn’t matter. The damage had already been done.

Gu answered with a 90.00 on her first run and an 89.00 on her third, finishing just behind at 179.00. It was close, razor thin, but not enough. The difference was in the first run. In a final defined by margins, Oldham struck first and never gave the lead back. Afterward, she pointed back to Beijing. The fourth-place finish that once felt crushing had sharpened her edge. In Milan, that heartbreak became fuel. And this time, when the moment came, she didn’t blink. “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.”

At the 2026 finals, Oldham opened with a backwards entry into a switch double cork 1260 with a safety grab. On her second run, she executed a double cork 1260 with a mute grab. Meanwhile, Gu landed her opening right double cork 1440 cleanly. However, she missed the tail grab and nearly fell on her second-run left double cork 1260—a trick she had only recently learned during training. Gu successfully landed it on her final attempt, but the score fell short of overtaking Oldham. What made the victory even more remarkable was the physical toll Oldham 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 occurs when blood pools within the body. Depending on the severity of the injury, it can cause a limited range of motion, stiffness, or weakness – particularly when intramuscular, as swelling can restrict movement or compress nearby structures. Competing despite this injury makes Oldham’s gold-medal achievement all the more impressive.

Oldham’s journey echoes some of sport’s most enduring tales of turning adversity into legend. Like Tiger Woods grinding through a broken leg to win the 2008 U.S. Open, or Kerri Strug’s gutsy, injured vault sealing team gold at the 1996 Olympics, Oldham refused to let a heartbreaking near-miss define her. In Milan, that sharpened focus – honing ultra-technical tricks and executing them flawlessly proved decisive in a final where margins were merciless.