LIVIGNO, 21 February 2026 — The United States retained its Olympic freestyle skiing mixed team aerials gold on Saturday, defeating strong competition from Switzerland and China in challenging snowy conditions in northern Italy.
The Americans stormed to victory after missing the podium earlier this week in both the men’s and women’s individual finals, where China had claimed gold through husband-and-wife duo Wang Xindi and Xu Mengtao.
The winning U.S. lineup featured Kaila Kuhn, who won gold at the 2025 world championships in women’s and mixed team aerials but finished fifth in Wednesday’s Olympic women’s final. She was joined by Christopher Lillis and Connor Curran, who placed eighth and 12th respectively in Friday’s men’s final.
The U.S. team scored 325.35 points out of a maximum 450 to secure gold. Switzerland claimed silver with 296.91 points, led by men’s silver medallist Noe Roth, while China took bronze with 279.68 points.
The competition in the alpine resort of Livigno was held under overcast skies and snowy conditions, reducing visibility and adding to the difficulty level for athletes attempting high-risk jumps.
China’s bid for a third Olympic title in the event was hampered by costly mistakes. Wang and Li Tianma, the bronze medallist in the men’s event, both crashed on landing after attempting high-difficulty jumps.
Aerials, a gravity-defying freestyle skiing discipline, has been part of the Winter Olympics since 1994 for individual men’s and women’s events and was introduced for mixed teams in 2022.
Athletes launch themselves off a near-vertical ramp, performing complex aerial manoeuvres at speeds exceeding 65 kilometres per hour. They are judged on height, distance, style, degree of difficulty and landing, with a maximum score of 150 per jump. In the mixed team format, each country fields three athletes, male and female competitors, whose individual scores are combined for the overall total.
