Winter Olympics 2026: Ogiwara Hiroto and Ian Matteoli ease into snowboard big air finals – daily results
The Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 snowboard competition officially got underway on Thursday night (5 February) with men’s snowboard big air qualifiers under the lights at Livigno Snow Park.
Japan’s Ogiwara Hiroto finished on top with a score of 178.50 to go into the final in fine form. Italian home hope Ian Matteoli delighted the home crowd to come home just behind the 20-year-old, with the top three rounded off by Kimura Kira of Japan.
Beijing 2022 Olympic snowboard big air champion Su Yiming qualified in fourth place, the People’s Republic of China snowboarder looking to defend his gold medal from four years ago.
“I’m really happy that at my first Olympics, I stomped the tricks what I wanted and got great scores,” Ogiwara told Olympics.com in Japanese. “I didn’t fall at all during today’s official training, which helped me stay calm going into the competition.
“Recently, I haven’t been feeling very nervous, and even though this is the Olympics, I was able to approach it with the same mindset as at a World Cup. I’m the type of person who’s usually either zero or 100 [per cent], and today I was able to land it, so I’d say it was 100. In the final, I want to give my 100 and go for the win.”
