American Ferreira completes his Olympic medal collection with a halfpipe gold

Over a decade of trying and getting oh-so-close, American freeskier Alex Ferreira twirled his pole above his head knowing that he had done the best he could to finally become an Olympic gold medalist.

Moments later, after his rivals had failed to better his top score, Ferreira celebrated the completion of his medal collection with his family and friends on Friday, when he won the men’s halfpipe final on a frosty night in the Italian Alps.

His first gold medal at age 31 came after Ferreira took silver in PyeongChang 2018 and the bronze four years ago in Beijing.

“He said he needed to finish the rainbow. He had the silver, the bronze and he needed the gold,” Alex’s mother, Colleen Ferreira, told The Associated Press.

“He was driven. A year ago, he said he was going to do this, and he did it.”

The Aspen, Colorado, native also delivered the United States its first gold medal in nearly two weeks of freeskiing or snowboarding at the Livigno snow park.

The halfpipe has been American territory in the Winter Olympics. Freeskier David Wise won gold on the halfpipe when it was introduced in Sochi in 2014 and four years later. Nico Porteous of New Zealand won gold in 2022, leaving Wise with the silver. Now Ferreira has returned it to Team USA.

Ferreira won with a third and final run worth 93.75 points, jumping ahead of 19-year-old Henry Sildaru of Estonia.

Sildaru captured the silver in his first Olympics. His third run was just 0.75 points off Ferreira’s mark.

Brendan Mackay of Canada took the bronze, nudging American Nick Goepper off the podium on the last run of the 11-man final.

Skicross

Four years ago, after a convoluted medal dispute with race officials, freeskiers Daniela Maier and Fanny Smith both ended up the proud recipients of Olympic bronze medals.

Fast forward to Friday, and they were celebrating together from the top two spots on the podium after Maier won the women’s skicross final right ahead Smith at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

Friends and rivals, the two were at the center of a judging controversy during the 2022 skicross final in Beijing when Smith crossed the finish line third, ahead of Maier in fourth.

But the race jury flipped that result after deciding that Smith had interfered with Maier, despite protests both from Smith and Maier herself. Smith had to appeal the jury’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which eventually overruled the officials’ decision and deemed that bronze medals should be awarded to both skiers. Smith got her bronze a year later back in Switzerland.

Reflecting on the ordeal after Friday’s medal ceremony, Maier said that she had supported Smith in that dispute, which ultimately drew them closer together.

“It’s so nice because, yeah, this story made us a good team,” Maier said. “And we (came) together and (became) good friends, we like to train with each other. So yeah, that we are both at the podium again is just a good story.”

The 2022 bronze medal dispute had led Smith to feel she had completely lost her “trust” in the freeski officials, she said before these Games.

Yet with the silver medal now around her neck, Smith said that she had moved on.

“It’s like a story which is behind me,” Smith said. “So today it’s just something that we could have really show an amazing and nice final. I think that’s what we need to keep.”

Smith, 33, added her silver to two bronzes from the past two Games.

Smith’s three medals in women’s skicross is an Olympic record. Marielle Thompson of Canada has two career medals — gold in 2014 and silver in 2022 — but was knocked out of Friday’s quarterfinals.

Speedskating

Kim Gilli denied South Korea teammate Minjeong Choi her third consecutive Olympic gold in the women’s 1,500 meters in short-track speedskating, while Corinne Stoddard earned a drought-ending bronze medal for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Games.

It’s the first time in 16 years that an American woman has won an individual medal in short-track.

Stoddard set the early pace in the final race of the Olympic program, but Choi swept to the front with two laps to go as the crowd rose to its feet. Gilli quickly went with her and the 21-year-old made the decisive pass on her teammate before crossing the finishing line.

Stoddard raised her arms in triumph as she crossed the line a split-second later for third place.

Arianna Fontana of Italy came up short in her bid to tie Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen as the most decorated Winter Olympian with her 15th medal. After winning gold in the 2,000-meter relay and silver in the 500 meters and 3,000-meter relay earlier in her home Olympics, the 35-year-old Fontana finished fifth in the 1,500-meter finale.

The Netherlands won its first men’s 5,000-meter relay, pulling away from the Korean and Italian teams over the final two laps of the 45-lap race to add to an impressive short-track haul at the Milan Cortina Games.

Jens van ‘t Wout, who skated the anchor leg and celebrated as he crossed the finish line, earned his third gold medal and fourth in all, while his nation earned its fifth gold and seventh medal overall in the short-track speedskating program.

He was joined by his brother Melle van ‘t Wout, Teun Boer and Friso Emons in stopping the clock in 6 minutes, 51.847 seconds, giving the Netherlands a comfortable gap over their closest pursuers inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena.

Jeongmin Lee, Juneseo Lee, Jongun Rim and Dongmin Shin managed to get past the Italian team in the final corner of the race to take the silver medal for the second consecutive Winter Games. Rim also earned individual bronze in the 1,000 meters.

Italy rounded out the podium for the host nation. Pietro Sighel, Thomas Nadalini, Luca Spechenhauser and Andrea Cassinelli were able to relegate the defending champion Canadians to fourth place in a race often described as choreographed chaos.

Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong of the Netherlands won her first Olympic gold, and sixth career medal overall, by finishing first in speedskating’s 1,500 meters at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, delighting a large and loud crowd of orange-clad Dutch fans.

Rijpma-de Jong clocked 1 minute, 54.9 seconds, supported raucously by thousands of her closest friends in the stands. They roared when she was introduced before her heat. And again when the video boards showed her ahead of the pace of the previous leader, silver medalist Ragne Wiklund of Norway. And, most ear-splittingly, when Rijpma-de Jong crossed the line and the number “1” appeared by her name to signify she’d taken the lead.

Her time was 0.06 faster than Wiklund’s. Valerie Maltais of Canada took the bronze, 0.31 behind Rijpma-de Jong.

Biathlon

Johannes Dale-Skjevdal of Norway was the only biathlete to hit all 20 of his targets in the 15-kilometer mass start race and skied his way to gold — Norway’s 17th gold medal of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics — breaking the record for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics.

Norway had set the record at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with 16 gold medals.

Dale-Skjevdal had taken the lead after the first standing bout with clean shooting and completed the five laps on newly packed snow and gusty winds in 39 minutes, 17.1 seconds. His teammate, Sturla Holm Laegreid, only missed one target and finished 10.5 seconds back for silver — his fifth medal of these Olympic Games.

Philipp Horn of Germany only missed one target on his last shooting bout and left the range in third place, but Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, who missed four on the day, chased Horn and passed him on a big hill, taking him to the finish for a bronze, 25.6 seconds behind Dale-Skjevdal.