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Norway’s Anna Odine Stroem won her second ski jumping gold medal of the Milano-Cortina Games in the inaugural Olympic women’s large hill event.
Norway took the top two spots, with Eirin Maria Kvandal winning silver. Slovenian favourite Nika Prevc settled for bronze in Predazzo, Italy.
Women’s ski jumping on the normal hill was first included in the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia but until this year, the contest on the large hill had been limited in the Olympics to men.
Stroem won with a final jump of 132 metres. Kvandal’s jump was 133.5 metres, but Stroem made up for it in style points from the judges and compensation points for wind.
Calgary’s Abigail Strate finished 11th after scoring just 106.9 points on her first jump before scoring 136.7 on her final attempt. Strate won a bronze medal in the mixed team event at the 2022 Beijing Games.
“I wanted to end [the competition] with a smile on my face and that last jump was worth it for me,” she told CBC Sports.
A shift in the wind on the hill earlier in the day, Strate pointed out, led to her first-round score, which ranked 26th of 30 athletes.
“Unfortunately, [the score of the first jump] was out of my control. [The jury] made a decision to move the [start] gate … and it cost myself and a few people [in] my range,” she said. “We didn’t stand a chance, which is really unfortunate at the Olympics.”
Calgary based ski jumper Abigail Strate finished in eleventh place Sunday in the women’s large hill individual final at Milano Cortina 2026.
In hindsight, Strate added, perhaps the jury could have waited for the conditions to be more fair “but it’s an outdoor sport. That happens. Unfortunately, I was the victim tonight. Someone’s always going to be.”
Strate was part of the team that won Canada’s first Olympic ski jumping medal with a bronze in the mixed event at the 2022 Beijing Games.
The 24-year-old won five of her six World Cup medals this season in large hill, including a gold on Jan. 1 in Germany.
Earlier in the Games, Strate placed 11th in the women’s normal hill competition that also saw Stroem claim gold.
Strate’s teammate, Nicole Maurer of Calgary, placed 20th of 28 finishers with 222.6 points.
Strate had a successful summer jumping season, reaching the medal podium at each of the five events she entered, and continued to find success on the snow this season.
1st World Cup win this season
Her first career World Cup victory came Jan. 1 on the large hill in Obertsdorf, Germany with 268.2 points.
Strate won two silver medals earlier this season in big hill jumping in Lillehammer, Norway and Wisla, Poland, and an Olympic test event this past September in Predazzo.
The three jumpers on the podium have amassed a lot of hardware at the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium.
Stroem won gold on the normal hill, edging out Prevc.
They reversed positions on the podium in the mixed team event with Prevc and her brother, Domen, winning gold with Anze Lanisek and Nika Vodan. Stroem and Kvandal shared silver in the mixed team event with Marius Lindvik and Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal.
Prevc is the defending world champion on both hills, the world record holder for the longest jump by a woman and the defending World Cup champion. She holds a significant lead in this season’s standings.
But she struggled to hit the big jumps she’s known for — a problem she also had on the normal hill.
The gold for Norway was its 26th medal of the Games, four more than second-place Italy. Norway also leads in gold medals with 12 to Italy’s eight.
Eilers breaks 3 vertebrae
Calgary’s Natalie Eilers didn’t compete Sunday after breaking three vertebrae “a few days ago” in a gym accident.
The 27-year-old realized her Olympic dream after returning from a year-long knee injury that sidelined her from competition. Eilers finished outside the top 30 in the first round of normal hill on Feb. 7 and didn’t advance.
“I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t heartbreaking, because I’ve worked so hard to get back to where I am and have pushed through so much,” Eilers said in an Instagram post Sunday.
“Competing at the Olympic Games has been a dream since I was a little girl and I’m still so grateful I’ve had the opportunity to be here with my team and compete on the normal hill, even if it wasn’t my best jump.
“Things happen sometimes and that is life,” continued Eilers, “and I will be okay in time.”
Eilers suffered multiple injuries from a devastating crash during training in early 2024 and had two surgeries to repair the damage.
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