LIVIGNO – Canadian Amy Fraser, still coping with the after-effects of a nasty injury suffered in training last March on the FIS World Championships, just missed the rostrum Sunday in women’s freeski halfpipe on the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The 30-year-old from Calgary finished fourth, landing three clean runs with one of the best earning a rating of 88.00.
“That’s a few of my best skiing,” said Fraser. “I believe there’s all the time some room for improvement clearly, being 4.5 points off the rostrum. Whatever. Someone’s got to return fourth.”
Fraser’s performance was all of the more impressive given she broke her shoulder in last yr’s crash at Engadin, Switzerland.
“Obviously fourth stings for us. It stings for her,” said Canadian halfpipe coach Trennon Paynter. “But really what she did today to ski her best in this case, she must be super-proud.”
Paynter said the crash left Fraser “smashed up.”
“It was type of a full-body beatdown. However the shoulder was definitely the worst of it and the one which lingered the longest and required essentially the most management. Even now she’s still coping with it somewhat.”
“I’m stoked I’m here,” Fraser said with fun.
Defending champion Eileen Gu of China won gold with a rating of 94.75, adding to the 2 silvers she won earlier within the games in slopestyle and large air.
Chinese teammate Li Fanghui earned silver at 93.00, with reigning world champion Zoe Atkin of Britain taking bronze at 92.50.
The 22-year-old Gu won gold in each halfpipe and large air in addition to silver in slopestyle 4 years go in Beijing, where she became the primary freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Games.
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Gu’s six profession medals move her past Canadian moguls star Mikaël Kingsbury (two golds and three silvers) as essentially the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history.
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Born in San Francisco, to an American father and Chinese mother, Gu began skiing at three years old.
A quantum physics student at Stanford University who’s fluent in English and Mandarin, Gu has three million followers on Instagram and greater than seven million on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
In December, Forbes magazine listed her because the fourth-highest-earning female athlete in 2025 — behind tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek — with off-field income of US$23 million because of lucrative endorsements from the likes of Red Bull, Porsche, IWC Schaffhausen and addition, TCL electronics.
The competitors did three runs, with only their best effort counting.
Canadian Rachael Karker, a bronze medallist 4 years ago in Beijing, placed seventh at 79.50. A chronic knee injury limited her training and competition prematurely of the games and two falls Sunday didn’t help.
The 28-year-old from Erin, Ont., who now makes her home in Calgary, required the assistance of two ski poles as she slowly left the competition site alongside fiancé Brendan Mackay, who won bronze in the boys’s halfpipe final Friday.
“I’m quite sore, but I’ll be all right,” said Karker, fighting to regulate her emotion. “I can’t really handle that many heavy runs in a row. Nearing the tip of coaching I used to be feeling pretty sore after which that first run, I couldn’t take that heavy landing.”
“I’m very proud I did all the pieces I could with what I had today,” she added.
Paynter said it was heartbreaking to see Karker “in that much pain.”
“It’s also just so impressive that she was on the market, going for it, putting all of it on the road like that,” he said. “And she or he knows the risks. It’s what she desired to do and we, after all, supported her through it.”
He marvelled at her performance.
“She wasn’t just skiing injured. She was charging as hard as she could injured.”
The ultimate, rescheduled as a result of poor weather Saturday evening, was held late morning Sunday in glorious sunshine. It was 5 C with not a cloud within the sky, with some spectators stripping all the way down to a T-shirt for the ultimate event in Livigno.
Competitors soared high above the halfpipe, which measures some 198 metres long, 22 metres wide with partitions 7.2 metres high.
Fraser led the primary run with an 85.00 before Atkin, skiing last as the highest qualifier, recorded a 90.50.
Karker’s second effort was clean, earning a 79.50 for the third-best rating of the run. But Gu and Li stole the show with runs of 94.00 and 91.50, respectively, taking on the No. 1 and a couple of spots with Atkin and Fraser — who didn’t improve their scores — dropping to 3rd and fourth. Karker was seventh.
While Karker fell on her third run, Fraser improved her rating to 88.00. Nevertheless it was not enough to maneuver up.
Gu also bettered her rating, laying down a 94.75, with Li and Atkins still to return. Each improved their scores but remained in the identical spot on the rostrum.
Fraser, who was eighth in Beijing, began skiing at age two but didn’t take up freestyle skiing until she was 21. Fraser, who holds a level in biology from the University of Calgary, won bronze on the X Games in Aspen before the Olympics.
Canadian Cassie Sharpe, who won gold in 2018 in Pyeongchang and silver 4 years ago in Beijing, needed to withdraw after a heavy crash in qualifying Thursday. The 33-year-old from Comox, B.C., was not cleared to compete, still coping with a heavy concussion, facial contusion and a few lingering dizziness after two nights in hospital.
Sharpe still qualified third with Fraser seventh and Karker ninth. Dillan Glennie of Courtenay, B.C., missed the ultimate in qualifying 14th.
“I’m so pleased with how she was skiing,” Fraser said of Sharpe. “I haven’t see her ski like that in years. And I’m glad she’s OK.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2026.