Team USA Closes Olympic Day One with No Medals
Oliver "Ollie" Martin of Team United States looks on after his first run during the Men’s Snowboard Big Air Qualification on day minus one of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Snow Park on February 05, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. Michael Reaves/Getty Images
With five medal events in the books in Milano Cortina, Team USA was swept off of the medal podium.
The closest Team USA athlete to medal was Ollie Martin, who finished in 4th place in the Men’s Big Air Snowboarding competition. The 17 year old youngest member of the United States Slopestyle and Big Air team squeezed his way into the finals after a fall in his first qualifying run. Martin had a total score of 163.00 but was beat out by Kira Kimura from Japan for gold and Ryoma Kimata for silver. Martin held onto bronze for some time but Yiming Su eked out the bronze on his final jump.
After nabbing a couple of medals in the early competitions, Italy nabbed its first gold medal in the Women’s 3000m Speed Skating when Francesca Lollobrigida finished with a 3:54.28 time, securing gold by more than 2 seconds over the silver medalist. Ragne Wiklund of Norway finished with a 3:56.54 time, while Valerie Maltais of Canada nabbed the bronze with a 3:56.93 time.
Later in the day, the Women’s Normal Hill Ski Jumping Event featured a huge upset as Anna Odine Stroem of Norway nabbed 267.3 points to knock the odds-on favorite, Nika Prevc of Slovenia, to a silver-worthy 266.2 point total. Japan’s Nozomi Maruyama grabbed the bronze with a 261.8
Elsewhere in the games, Team USA fared well in its Women’s Ice Hockey matchup, shutting out Finland 5-0. America’s Mixed Doubles round robin matchup against Great Britain finished with a 6-4 victory for the Brits, but there’s still a path forward for America to get to the finals.
Another shocker occurred the Men’s Single Skating Short Program, which features one of the most highly anticipated figure skaters in Ilia Malinin. Malinin, the first skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, finished in second place in the short program after underperforming in the technical elements and getting a 98.00 score. NBC Commentator Terry Gannon called it an upset during the live broadcast. Malinin secured 9 points for Team USA but fell more than 10 points behind Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama.
With plenty of medal events remaining, Team USA still has chances to land on the podium.
Edit: An earlier version of this article misidentified Nika Prevc’s nationality. We apologize for the error.
