The Faction Collective athletes delivered a powerful statement at the Women’s Slopestyle Finals of Milano Cortina 2026, with four riders dropping in to the Women's Slopestyle Finals and Eileen Gu claiming her second consecutive Olympic silver medal in the discipline.
In a dramatic finale that mirrored the Beijing 2022 showdown, China's Eileen Gu once again found herself locked in an intense battle with Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud. And again, the result came down to fractions of a point.
Gu dominated the opening run with a commanding performance that set the bar high. Throwing down on the down-flat-down rail, a 450 on, and a massive trick combination of switch misty 9, double 10 blunt, and double 12 safety across the jumps, she posted a score of 86.58 to take the early lead over Gremaud's 83.60.
But the defending Olympic champion had other plans. Gremaud elevated her technical difficulty in the second run, landing switch double 12 on the second jump and a double 12 on the bottom feature to score 86.98; edging ahead by just 0.40 points.
With everything on the line in the third and final run, Gu needed perfection. Instead, she caught the first rail early and went down, ending her gold medal hopes. The final margin was a razor-thin 0.38 points separating gold from silver, eerily reminiscent of the 0.33-point difference that denied Gu the same Slopestyle title four years ago in Beijing.
Perhaps the most emotionally charged performance of the day came from Switzerland's Giulia Tanno, another member of The Faction Collective. After missing not one but two previous Olympic Games due to injuries, the 25-year-old delivered when it mattered most.
Tanno stomped a clean run featuring impressive rail work and a jump line that included two 900s and a double 10, showcasing the technical prowess that made her a fixture on Faction's roster. While her final placement wasn't on the podium, simply making it to the Olympic stage represented a career-defining moment for an athlete who had battled back from devastating setbacks.
China's Liu Mengting made her Olympic debut count. The rising star, who had been building momentum on the World Cup circuit with multiple podium finishes heading into Milano Cortina, put down both double 10s in her run; a technical benchmark that showed she belonged among the world's elite.
Though Liu didn't crack the podium in her first Olympic appearance, her performance demonstrated the depth of talent within the Collective and China's freestyle skiing pipeline. With Gu leading the way and Liu coming up behind her, the future looks bright for Chinese women's slopestyle team.
Canada's Naomi Urness saved some of her best skiing for the final run. After a rough start that left her in last place following run one with a score of just 24.65, the 21-year-old from Quebec refused to fold.
In her second run, Urness cleaned up her rail section significantly, tackling the challenging features that had given many riders trouble throughout the competition. On her third run, she elevated even further with a front swap transfer to the gap rail that drew praise from commentators for its technical difficulty and style.
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