On 12 February, Team USA’s Nathan Pare gave it his all in the men’s snowboard cross at the 2026 Winter Olympics… but things didn’t go as hoped.

In his quarterfinal heat in Milan, he started slow and stayed near the back of the pack for much of the race. Step by step, he worked his way forward, handling jumps and tight turns, and crossed the finish line first… an outstanding comeback that had fans cheering. But the moment of triumph was cut short.

Midway through the course, Pare tried to move inside to pass Spain’s Lucas Eguibar Breton. In the process, the tail of Pare’s board made contact with Eguibar’s board, causing the Spanish rider to fall. Despite being in third place immediately after the collision, Pare pushed hard, overtaking the others down the final stretch to cross first.

But in snowboard cross, all quarterfinal finishes with contact are reviewed on video. Judges ruled that Nathan Pare’s move constituted illegal interference and was serious enough to merit a red card, meaning he was disqualified.

“That’s insane,” Pare told a nearby judge, his frustration captured live on NBC after he thought he had won his quarterfinal snowboard cross race.

Broadcasters also added, “He stumbles a little bit, and he doesn’t see him back there… That did not look like it was on purpose.”

Snowboard cross rules define interference as intentional, unintentional, or incidental, with only intentional contact leading to a red card. The officials deemed Pare’s crash intentional, promoting Frenchmen Jonas Chollet and Loan Bozzolo to advance instead.

Eguibar explained, “Nathan really aggressive to the inside and really aggressive to the outside, and I was there. The rules are really clear. If you do this and (collide) with the other rider, you are out.”

Even with the rules clarified, Pare’s reaction showed the emotional toll.

“They are saying I deviated from my turn line to go into someone else, which I don’t necessarily feel is completely accurate. I did everything I felt was correct. I would probably go retake the line again if I was given the option. To go from winning the heat and then they’re going to view it as ranked as last, yeah, it’s impossible to explain how that feels,” Nathan Pare protested immediately.

With Nathan Pare out, Nick Baumgartner became the only American in the semifinals. He pushed hard, nearly catching Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle behind Canada’s Eliot Grondin. Haemmerle advanced and went on to win gold, Grondin took silver, and Austria’s Jakob Dusek earned bronze. But the heartbreak for a few athletes in the Winter Olympics didn’t end with snowboard cross.

Joep Wennemars’ medal hopes dashed after collision

On 12 February, during the men’s 1,000 m speed skating race, Joep Wennemars of the Netherlands and China’s Lian Ziwen were racing in Pair 11 when they reached a crucial lane-change section on the straight. In speed skating, the skater on the outside lane has the right of way when moving into the inside lane. Lian, coming from the inner lane, did not yield properly, and their skates collided, disrupting Wennemars’ rhythm.

After reviewing the incident, officials disqualified Lian Ziwen for hindering Wennemars. The Dutch skater was then given a re-skate about 20-30 minutes later, skating alone without the surrounding competition. Despite his best efforts, he finished with the fifth-fastest time, missing out on a medal.

Wennemars, the 2025 world champion in the 1,000 m, reflected on how this incident “ripped apart” his Olympic medal hopes. Even though Lian apologized afterward, saying the contact was unintentional and that he would have yielded if he had seen Wennemars nearby, the damage had already been done.

But at the end, the men’s 1,000 m gold went to American Jordan Stolz, who set a new Olympic record, with silver going to Jenning de Boo of the Netherlands.