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China claimed two golds on snow at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Wednesday, while Norway’s cross-country sensation Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo raised his Winter Olympic gold medal tally to ten.
On his 22nd birthday, Su Yiming soared to victory in the men’s snowboard slopestyle final, delivering a near-flawless run to secure China’s first gold of these Games with 82.41 points, ahead of Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa and Jake Canter of the United States.
Four years ago, Su finished second in slopestyle before capturing the big air gold. At Milan-Cortina, he claimed bronze in big air on February 7 before his triumphant slopestyle run.
“People kept wishing me ‘happy birthday,’ but I didn’t want to remind myself it was my birthday,” he said. “I just wanted to focus on every feature, from the first rail to the last jump.”
“But when the gold medal was finally placed around my neck, it still felt unbelievable, like a dream,” Su added.
Shortly afterwards, five-time Olympian Xu Mengtao won China’s second gold and made history by becoming the first freestyle skier to claim consecutive Olympic aerials gold medals.
The 35-year-old, third to jump in the women’s super-final, scored 112.90 points to secure the title. Australia’s Danielle Scott took silver with 102.17, while Xu’s compatriot Shao Qi earned bronze on 101.90.
Another Chinese skier, Kong Fanyu, finished fourth with 101.31.
“I did a very good jump, a full-full-full, with good air, good form, good landing, so it was amazing,” the Chinese veteran said after her win, adding, “This was my fifth Olympic Games, and I just had to keep focused.”
In the women’s snowboard slopestyle, Japan’s Mari Fukada scored 87.83 points for gold, with New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott taking silver and Kokomo Murase of Japan earning bronze.
Norway continued its dominance in cross-country skiing, as Klaebo, the record-holder for Winter Olympic gold medals, paired with Einar Hedegart to win the men’s team sprint, clocking 18 minutes 28.98 seconds.
The United States earned silver, and the host nation Italy, took bronze.
“It’s pretty unreal. I feel like everything has worked out very well now. My shape is good, and I’m still motivated to do well in the races. I sleep a little bit better now than I did the first week here, but it feels amazing,” said Klaebo after his record-extending performance.
SU2: LIVIGNO, Feb. 18, 2026. [Xinhua]
Sweden clocked 20:29.99 to win the women’s team sprint gold, while Switzerland trailed by 1.40 seconds for silver and Germany took bronze in 20:35.86.
Also on snow, American alpine skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin stormed to gold in the women’s slalom, marking her third Olympic title and return to the top podium after eight years.
Camille Rast of Switzerland took silver, and Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson secured bronze.
“I know my level of slalom skiing. When it’s good, I know what’s possible, and sometimes the hardest thing is to do the best skiing. But I came here to ski. I came here for the turns between the start and the finish,” Shiffrin said after the race.
France won the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay, as the quartet of Camille Bened, Lou Jeanmonnot, Oceane Michelon and Julia Simon clocked 1:10:22.7 to take the gold medal.
The victory completed France’s clean sweep of all three biathlon relay titles at these Games, following earlier golds in the mixed relay and men’s relay.
“There was a lot of pressure today for me to start the Olympic relay for the team, because we knew we were the favourites. We saw it yesterday with the boys, and we wanted to match them,” said Bened.
Sweden finished runner-up, trailing France by 51.3 seconds, while Norway claimed bronze, one minute 7.6 seconds behind the winner.
At the ice rink in Milan, Canada’s Steven Dubois was crowned in the men’s 500m short track speed skating.
Dutch skater Melle van’t Wout took silver, and his younger brother Jens placed third. Reigning champion Liu Shaoang of China was eliminated in the semifinals.
South Korea claimed gold in the women’s 3,000m relay. Italy took silver, making Arianna Fontana the country’s most decorated Olympian with 14 medals, while Canada settled for bronze.