CORTINA D'AMPEZZO –
Three U.S. freestyle skiers posted a top score of 325.35 in the mixed team aerials event, earning the U.S. an eleventh gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Games as snow fell over the Livigno Aerials & Moguls Park.
The U.S. team includes Olympic veteran Chris Lillis and newcomers Connor Curran and Kaila Kuhn, grinning widely and clutching stuffies atop a medal stand they shared with the Swiss team, which won silver, and the bronze medallists from China.
For Lillis, a member of the U.S. team that won gold in this event when it debuted at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, sticking the landing on his back-double-full-full-full signaled redemption, after he missed the medal round in the individual men's aerial event the day before.
For Team USA, Lillis, Curran and Kuhn clinched the eleventh gold medal of these Games, setting the nation's new all-time record for gold medals earned at the Winter Olympics. The previous U.S. record of ten gold medals was set at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon.
The mixed aerials team joins a gold medal streak started by alpine skier Breezy Johnson on February 8. Other gold medalists for the U.S. include alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, bobsledder Elana Meyers-Taylor, figure skater Alysia Liu and the U.S. figure skating team, Alex Ferreira in freeski halfpipe, Elizabeth Lemley on the freeski moguls, the U.S. women's ice hockey team, and speedskater Jordan Stolz – the only American so far to earn two golds at these Games.
At these Winter Olympics, the U.S. is second only to Norway in the medal count. Norwegian athletes have earned 17 gold medals at the Games so far, breaking their own record for the most first place podium finishes of any nation in a Winter Games (Their previous record, set at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, was 16 gold medals, Mallon says).
There are still several opportunities for U.S. athletes to close the gap with Norway. On Saturday, speedskater Jordan Stolz races in the mass start and bobsledder Elana Meyers-Taylor competes in the two-person race. The U.S. men's ice hockey team plays Canada in a gold medal match Sunday.
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