Muir fourth in big air in another medal near-miss

Freestyle skier Kirsty Muir once again came heartbreakingly close to a Winter Olympic medal for Team GB with her second fourth-place finish of the Games.

Competing in the big air, Muir scored a combined 174.75 points from her best two runs, 3.5 points shy of Italian bronze medallist Flora Tabanelli.

It comes exactly a week after the 21-year-old missed out on slopestyle bronze by just 0.41 points.

Canada’s Megan Oldham won gold with China’s defending champion Eileen Gu – competing in a big air competition for the first time since winning the Olympic title four years ago – settling for silver this time.

“I’m really proud of myself for putting the two tricks down that I did, and also going for it in that third run because I’ve never landed that trick before,” Muir, competing at her second Games, told BBC Sport.

“I just had to go for it, and yes I crashed out, but I’m still proud of myself.”

The final had been delayed by more than an hour after a heavy blizzard set in at Livigno Snow Park, while Mathilde Gremaud, a big favourite for a medal, was one of two Swiss skiers to withdraw last-minute through injury.

That looked to have opened up the field for Muir, who had qualified in fourth for the final.

But in an astonishing first round, four skiers posted scores of 90.00 points or more, with Muir languishing in seventh and knowing she needed to go big.

She did just that, posting 93.00 with a 1620 trick, featuring four and a half rotations, the highest score of the second run and one that catapulted her up the standings into silver medal position.

At that point Gu, already a silver medallist in the slopestyle at these Games, was way off the pace having struggled with her second attempt, but she made amends on her final jump to bump Muir down into third.

The Chinese star – the fourth-highest paid female athlete in the world – celebrated like her medal was confirmed at that point, despite plenty of skiers waiting in the wings to nudge her off the podium.

As it proved, they couldn’t do that, though Tabanelli’s final jump of 94.25 points – the biggest score of the night – came just 0.75 points shy of silver medal position.

That piled the pressure on Muir’s third and final jump.

She took her time at the top of the big air structure, talking through her options with her coach and decided to go for another 1620 trick with a different grab, but ultimately could not land her effort, leaving her lost in her thoughts of what might have been as she sat on the snow.

“When the scores came in for the other girls, I knew I had to give it something really, really good to try and get on that podium, so I’m stoked that I did try that,” she said.

It marks an agonising fifth fourth-place finish for Team GB at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, with time running out to hit the minimum target of five medals set before the Games by UK Sport.

In addition to Muir’s two near-misses, snowboarder Mia Brookes finished fourth in the big air, while the same position was reached by Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds in the mixed doubles curling, and Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit in the mixed team skeleton.

Brookes had been expected to contest for the medals in Tuesday’s slopestyle final but failed to qualify, while both GB’s men’s and women’s rinks face uphill battles to reach the semi-finals in their respective curling finals.

High hopes remain in freestyle skier Zoe Atkin, who is the current halfpipe world champion. She starts her campaign with qualifying on Thursday, with the final set to take place on Saturday.

Should GB reach the target of five, the team would equal its record haul from a Winter Olympics, achieved at both the 2014 and 2018 Games.

But even if it doesn’t, these Olympics should still be seen as a success for the nation.

So far, three gold medals have been won, a historic achievement given Team GB had never before won more than one at a single Games.

That total includes a first Olympic gold on snow, from Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes in the mixed team snowboard cross, in addition to double gold from Matt Weston in the skeleton, the second of those coming in the mixed team event with Tabby Stoecker.