This Canadian skier kept dare-devil style to reach wildest Olympic dreams

• Canadian Megan Oldham won a gold medal in the women’s free ski big air event in Livigno, Italy.
• Oldham’s victory came after recovering from a concussion in November and a crash during the slopestyle event a week prior.
• This is Oldham’s second medal of the games, adding to a bronze she won in slopestyle.
• China’s Eileen Gu secured her fifth Olympic medal by winning silver in the same event.

LIVIGNO, Italy — Megan Oldham wanted to bring one medal back to Canada. Any color would do.

She certainly won’t complain then with two in her suitcase – one being gold that the 24-year-old won Monday night in the women’s free ski big air event that was delayed 75 minutes as sidewinding snow blanketed the Valtellina Valley.

“Honestly, this has been an Olympics that has totally surpassed my dreams … and to come home with gold is something I never thought was possible,” Oldham said. “I’m so proud of myself.”

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And she should be. Her performance over the past week-plus at Livigno Snow Park – and really the last few months – has been rooted in perseverance.

In November, she suffered a concussion that put her on the shelf for four weeks. Oldham had never dealt with one before and faced uncertainty regarding the recovery, she said. Her coach, JF Cusson, was on the road with other athletes and couldn’t oversee that process. When she returned, Cusson said, they had to scrap the original bag of tricks they planned on bringing to Italy since she’d injured herself trying to up her moves.

A week ago, she suffered a “heavy” crash on the final jump of her fist slopestyle run. She shook it off and made the podium with bronze. Of course, she’d be determined and do everything she could to display her skiing, Oldham said. That didn’t make the hematoma on her quad that would seize up any more comfortable.

By the big air finals, she wasn’t limping anymore — just some leftover bruising and soreness.

“I don’t what it is,” said Oldham, who finished fourth in big air in Beijing four years ago, which was tough to process for her. “But just something about it, I want to be up there and prove mostly to myself that I’m capable of it.”

Maybe that explains why she did not take a customary victory jump even though she’d secured gold by the last run of the night. She’d trained hard, after all, and wanted to show everyone the switch 1400 mute. She didn’t land it. It didn’t matter.

Growing up with two brothers – one older, one younger, both in town to watch their sister – who are adrenaline junkies, she tried to keep up with them. They bring out the best in her, she said.  

“Now I can hold this one over them, for sure,” she joked.

Skiing off the roof of family home’s garage was the example Oldham cited of how she and her brothers would get up to no good. One time, their dad came home as they were embarking on a “run.” He was livid – not necessarily concerned for their well-being. He feared them damaging the roof.  

“That was all my brother’s idea,” Oldham said. “I was just tagging along. That shows where it comes from, for sure. The no fear comes from him.”

Oldham’s win was Canada’s second gold of these Olympics – and second in as many days after Mikael Kingsbury won men’s dual moguls Sunday.

China’s Eileen Gu won her fifth Olympic medal in five events and will go for a sixth in the women’s halfpipe later this week. That would make her the most-decorated free skier – male or female – ever.

“Five-time Olympic medalist has a nice ring to it,” Gu said.