Freestyle Olympic drama: Only one Ukrainian advances to final with gold chance

Bad weather and schedule changes

Due to severe weather conditions, the men’s freestyle skiing competition started with a two-day delay.

Four Ukrainian athletes participated in the qualifiers: Oleksandr Okipnyuk, Dmytro Kotovskyi, and Olympic debutants Yan Havriuk and Maksym Kuznetsov.

The qualification format included two rounds. The top six athletes after the first attempt earned direct spots in the finals, while six places were contested in the second round.

Okipniuk triumphs, favorite falters

Oleksandr Okipnyuk secured his spot in the final quickly. Performing a Back Double Full-Full-Full, he earned 112.67 points, placing sixth and qualifying for the next stage ahead of schedule.

This marks Okipnyuk’s second consecutive Olympic final.

Meanwhile, team favorite Dmytro Kotovskyi could not perform to his potential. After failing in his first attempt, he simplified his routine for the second round with a Back Full-Double Full-Full, but made a landing mistake, scoring only 80.97 points, finishing 17th overall.

Results and final plans

Other Ukrainian athletes were also unable to break into the top 12. Yan Havriuk and Maksym Kuznetsov finished 21st and 23rd, respectively.

The highest qualification score was posted by Chinese freestyler Li Tianma (127.50).

Men’s freestyle skiing qualification highlights:

• Pirmin Werner (Switzerland) – 122.17

• Ci Guangpu (China) – 120.80

• Xindi Wang (China) – 118.10

• …

• 6. Oleksandr Okipniuk (Ukraine) – 112.67

• 17. Dmytro Kotovskyi (Ukraine) – 95.16

• 21. Yan Havriuk (Ukraine) – 84.07

• 23. Maksym Kuznetsov (Ukraine) – 68.88

The final jumps, where Okipnyuk will compete for a spot in the super final (top 6), begin today at 2:30 p.m. Kyiv time.

Earlier, we reported on the historic debut of Ukrainians in Nordic combined at the 2026 Winter Olympics