OLYMPICS: Freestyle-Norway's Frostad jumps from Beijing basement to Italian gold

LIVIGNO, Italy – Tormod Frostad of Norway left the Beijing Winter Olympics four years ago uncertain about his future in freestyle skiing after finishing last in the men’s big air final. On Tuesday night in the Italian Alps, he stood with the Norwegian flag draped around his shoulders and a gold medal around his neck.

The 23-year-old Frostad delivered three jaw-dropping jumps to win the big air contest at the 2026 Games, scoring 195.5 out of a possible 200 and topping a highly competitive field at the Milano Cortina Games.

In 2022, Frostad had finished 12th in the same event.

“In Beijing, I was really young and kind of confused about where I wanted to go,” Frostad said. “After those Games, I fell extremely in love with skiing and competing. I’ve been working ever since to get to this moment.”

Big air skiing involves sliding down a steep jump and launching into the air to perform flips, twists, and spins before landing.

Frostad said his earlier uncertainty came from trying to figure out where he could push the sport and his own limits. He decided to focus on stylish execution rather than just technical tricks.

“A trick you can learn,” he explained. “But you can’t really teach someone about style. That’s a whole process of finding yourself.”

After landing two exceptional tricks in Tuesday’s snowy conditions, Frostad was in the silver-medal position going into his final jump. He said he felt no pressure to go for gold at that point.

“I was mostly just beyond happy to land those two tricks,” he said. “On the third run, I could ski with joy in my body.”

In the end, Frostad’s final jump secured him the gold medal. Taking a sip from a bottle of prosecco afterward, he summed up the moment in one word: “Amazing.”

-Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Toby Davis/Reuters