Eileen Gu came to Italy to defend her Olympic gold, but her toughest rival at the 2026 Winter Olympics isn’t standing at the top of the halfpipe; it’s the weather, which has already begun reshaping the schedule.

“Hopefully our final weather update of the 2026 Olympics, but the women’s freeski halfpipe final has been moved to 4:40 a.m. ET Sunday. Big event, adds some juice for the final day if you’re up at 4:40, but *probably* means fewer people will see it,” read a report on X by Mitch Goldich. 

Following some steady snow, the women’s freeski halfpipe event had to be postponed by one full day. Incidentally, this will be the final event to take place in Livigno, a scenic Alpine town in Italy. Originally scheduledfor Saturday at 1:30 pm ET, fans will now have to wait untill Sunday, 4:40 am ET to find out who wins the coveted gold medal. 

The area has been receiving some heavy snowfall over the last few days. During the men’s ski cross event, too, excessive snow made the conditions utterly challenging with diminished visibility. Thick layers of snow also caused the skiers to slow down significantly. Thus, when the snow didn’t stop falling, the entire slope saw blocks of snow build up.

Gu, who is a native of San Francisco, will suit up for her home country, China. Having already won a couple of gold and a silver medal in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, she is looking to double her Olympic tally. Till now, competing in the women’s Big Air and Slopestyle categories, Gu won silver in Milano Cortina.

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Thus, eyeing her maiden gold in Italy, the 22-year-old will now have an agonizing wait on her hands. She will also have stiff competition coming from Britain’s Zoe Atkin and Li Fanghui from China. 

Meanwhile, with the excitement for the Games on the rise, there had been quite a lot of instances when the weather had played spoilsport.

How nature is becoming the biggest rival of Milan 2026

The 2026 Milan Winter Olympics have been battling against the woes of nature from the very beginning. Although the Italian Alps were covered with a blanket of snow for almost the whole of January, warm weather during the Christmas season kept the administration bothered. Even more so because the alpine regions are heating up faster, winters are growing shorter, and snowfall has reduced significantly.

IOC sustainability head Julie Duffus shared a stance on the matter and said, “Climate change is already reshaping winter sports as we know it. The question is how we can evolve the Olympic Winter Games responsibly.”

Now, while the January snow and Milan’s organization somehow made the Winter Olympics possible, it did not have a fully smooth run. And to add even more drama to the already concerning scenario, even indoor events got delayed because of Italy’s weather conditions.

Smooth execution of Indoor curling in the 2026 Olympics was hampered by the weather. The women’s curling matches, which were previously scheduled to unfold on February 19 (Thursday), were delayed by approximately 30 minutes. 

Why? The teams were delayed on their way to the venue because of the snow. Now, as events continue to be impacted because of changing climatic conditions, fans will have to be patient to catch their favourite athletes compete in the icy realm of Milan, aiming for a podium place finish.