Kirsty Muir Endures Double Olympic Heartbreak with Fourth-Place Finishes
Scottish freestyle skier Kirsty Muir has suffered a second devastating near-miss at the Winter Olympics, finishing fourth in the Big Air final on Monday evening. This result adds to her agonising fourth-place finish from last week's slopestyle competition, leaving the 21-year-old without a medal despite two strong performances in Milano-Cortina.
Dramatic Final Marred by Weather and Crashes
The Big Air final was delayed by seventy-five minutes due to a severe blizzard in Livigno, the Alpine town hosting the snowsport events. Ground staff worked frantically to clear the course with shovels and leaf blowers as heavy snow continued to fall throughout the competition. Conditions improved slightly later in the evening, allowing organisers to proceed, but athletes faced challenging visibility and landing surfaces.
Muir qualified in fourth position for the final, behind slopestyle medallists Megan Oldham of Canada, China's Eileen Gu, and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud. However, the field was reduced to ten skiers shortly before the event began when Gremaud and her compatriot Anouk Andraska withdrew with minor injuries sustained in training crashes earlier that day. Gremaud, the Beijing Big Air bronze medallist, was stretchered off with a hip injury, while Andraska hurt her wrist.
Muir's Rollercoaster Performance
In the first run, with snowfall intensifying, all athletes opted for ambitious jumps. Muir scored 81.75 for a double 1080 with a mute grab, leaving her in eighth place initially. Austria's Lara Wolf led with a massive 93.50. However, Muir dramatically improved her position in the second run, executing a clean double cork 1620 for a score of 93.00, which propelled her to provisional second place.
Her hopes were dashed in the third and final run when she attempted another difficult manoeuvre, a double 1440 with a tailgrab, but crashed on landing. This left her total score at 174.75, just under four points off the podium. Gold went to Canada's Megan Oldham, who upgraded her slopestyle bronze to a first Olympic gold. China's Eileen Gu took silver, matching her slopestyle result, while home favourite Flora Tabanelli of Italy claimed bronze with a spectacular 94.25 on her final jump.
Context and Aftermath
This marks Muir's second fourth-place finish in a week, having been pipped to the slopestyle podium by just 0.41 points. Despite the disappointment, these results represent an improvement on her debut at the Beijing Olympics, where she finished fifth in slopestyle and eighth in Big Air. Muir is the reigning X Games champion in slopestyle and a Big Air bronze medallist from previous competitions.
After her victory was secured, gold medallist Megan Oldham attempted a celebratory switch left double 14 mute grab on her victory lap but fell, though she was immediately swarmed by jubilant teammates in the finish area. The event concluded under heavy snowfall, with organisers praising the athletes for competing in difficult conditions.
Muir now leaves Milano-Cortina with two frustrating fourth-place finishes, highlighting the fine margins in elite freestyle skiing where podium positions can be decided by fractions of a point or a single landing.
