Galli eyes Ski Cross history, Melville Ives faces Slopestyle challenge from USA quartet

After waiting 34 years for a first Olympic Freestyle Skiing medal, Italy could get a second in the span of four days.

Jole Galli (ITA) is the host nation’s big hope at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games when Women’s Ski Cross gets underway on Friday.

The 30-year-old just showed her prowess on home snow, earning a win and a third-place finish at the World Cups in Val di Fassa last month. She will be looking to give fans at Livigno Snow Park more reason to cheer after Flora Tabanelli (ITA) claimed Big Air bronze on Monday.

But she will have to navigate a deep field that is headlined by defending Olympic champion Sandra Naeslund (SWE). Naeslund is on course for a fifth Crystal Globe, leading the 2025/26 World Cup standings with 12 podium finish this season, including nine wins.

Canada’s Marielle Thompson and Brittany Phelan, Fanny Smith (SUI) and Daniela Maier (GER) will also be aiming to add to their Olympic success.

Thompson, the Sochi 2014 champion and Beijing 2022 silver medalist, is finding form since returning from injury. She has two World Cup third-place finishes this year.

Fellow four-time Crystal Globe winner Smith missed the Val di Fassa stop through injury but is ready to mount another attack on the podium. She has been to every Games since the event’s debut at Vancouver 2010, taking bronze at the last two Olympics.

Seeding the 32 competitors begins at 10:00 CET tomorrow, with the 1/8 finals starting two hours later. The finals are set to take place from 13:10.

Men’s Freeski Halfpipe qualification will also take place on Friday from 10:30 after heavy snowfall led to postponement from its scheduled slot on Thursday morning. The final will start at 19:30 as originally scheduled.

Reigning world champion Finley Melville Ives (NZL) will be hoping to succeed compatriot Nico Porteous (NZL) as the Halfpipe champion. 

The 19-year-old leads the 2025/26 Halfpipe Crystal Globe race, with seven Americans directly behind him, including the quartet at these Games — Hunter Hess, Birk Irving, Nick Goepper, and Alex Ferreira (USA).

Two-time reigning Halfpipe Crystal Globe winner Ferreira took Pyeongchang 2018 silver and Beijing 2022 bronze.

A three-time Olympic Slopestyle medallist after claiming Slopestyle silvers in 2018 and 2022 and bronze at Sochi 2014, Goepper is looking to extend his Olympic podium streak to four straight Games, but this time in the pipe, an event he switched to just three seasons ago. With two wins and seven total podiums in his 11 career Halfpipe World Cup starts, as well as a Engadin 2025 World Championships silver medal, the 31-year-old should not be counted out.

Goepper, who retired from Slopestyle and Big Air competition in January 2023 only to return as a Halfpipe skier for the 2023/24 season, told NBC: "I thought, alright, how cool a story would this be if like Nick Goepper returns to competition in halfpipe, and then climbs up the ranks in these next couple years and then goes back and then wins a gold medal at his fourth Olympics? I kind of wrote the story in my head.”

Tomorrow, the Ski Cross and Slopestyle stories unfold.