USA’s Ollie Martin, with broken arm, misses out on Olympic big air medal

• American snowboarder Ollie Martin, 17, finished fourth in the men’s big air final at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
• Martin was pushed off the podium by China’s Su Yiming on the final jump, a move that created some controversy.
• He competed with a broken arm sustained just two weeks prior to the Games.

LIVIGNO, Italy – The first competitive controversy of the 2026 Winter Olympics manifested in Team USA missing out on the chance to earn its first medal on the first official day of the Games.

Richards, though, was not wrong. The qualifiers two nights ago here at Livigno Snow Park were more enthralling. An event that gives boarders three chances to do their biggest trick turned into a toned-down display.

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But it gave Martin a real shot at the podium, a position he held until China’s Su Yiming – the reigning gold-medalist in the event – did another switch backside 1900 melon. Yiming caught himself on the ground with both hands, but that didn’t matter to the judges. They rewarded him for going big with a score that allowed him to leapfrog Martin, pushing him off the podium and giving the bronze to Yiming.

“We’re not trying to compete just on difficulty level or who is the best,” Yiming said. “ … It’s about being able to have the best tactics and strategy, other than just challenging yourself to the highest difficulty. Consistency is the most important. I have really prepared many high-difficulty tricks in competition. And I did finish them in my previous training. It’s a pity that I could not present it today.”

Martin declined to speak to reporters, with U.S. Ski and Snowboard saying he was disappointed in the result. A trio of U.S.-based reporters managed to wrangle his mother Anne.

Anne didn’t want to say anything about Yiming’s final jump and subsequent score.

Instead, she passed on an opportunity to acknowledge a fantastic finish to his Olympic debut, as he was the lone American of the four slopestyle/big air members to advance to finals. He qualified ninth and was in 10th going into his last run, when a frontside double 1800 mute propelled him into second.

“I was surprised he was still there for so long,” Anne said.

She added: “I have an incredible amount of faith in Ollie. He knows what he’s doing. He’s very smart about it.”

Anne said it was harder for Martin to make the Olympics and that competing here is more of a celebration. She knew that the frontside double 1800 was in the bag, because he grabs with his left arm – and he broke his right arm two weeks ago while training for the X Games in Aspen, Colorado. He underwent surgery the next day and eventually made his way over to Italy.

“I think he’s doing great,” she said.

Martin is certainly a shy kid who possesses negative interest in the spotlight at this point in his career, it seems.

“He’s just quiet,” Anne said.

But it definitely would have been nice to hear from the kid about that.

“If he was going to do his pullback (1600 – 4.5 revolutions), that would have been crazy and dangerous,” Anne said.

Japan’s Kira Kimura and Ryoma Kimata finished with gold and silver, respectively. Martin will compete next in the men’s slopestyle competition. Qualifying begins Monday, Feb. 16.

Martin owns a snowboarding figure that he brings with him on trips and puts it through flips and tricks to help with his own visualization on jumps and rails. It made the trip to the Alps with him.

“My mom made me bring it,” Martin told reporters during a pre-Games news conference. “Honestly, that toy was really helpful for me. I could use it to visualize. I was able to come up with some tricks with that toy.”

A relative newcomer, Martin placed second in big air at the Youth Winter Games in Gangwon, South Korea, in 2024. Last year, he finished third in both big air and slopestyle at the world championships in Switzerland. His best finish this season came at a World Cup in Steamboat Springs, Colorado (third in big air).

Then came qualifying for the Olympics, then finals – and nearly a podium.

“It’s all going to plan so far,” he said. “It’s really great.”

Imagine how a medal would have fit into said plan.