Mac Forehand earns silver medal in freestyle skiing Big Air

Lori Riley, Hartford Courant on Feb 17, 2026

Published in Olympics

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Mac Forehand, a two-time Olympic freestyle skier who grew up in Fairfield, Conn., was disappointed with his results in the Olympic slopestyle competition last week.

But Tuesday, Forehand, 24, made up for that disappointment with a silver medal in the Big Air competition at the Livigno Snow Park in Italy.

Forehand scored 193.25 to finish second behind Norway’s Tormod Frostad, who scored a 98.50 on his final run to win the competition with a total score of 195.50.

Forehand went into the Big Air finals in first place in the standings. The competition was delayed due to weather conditions and eventually took place in heavy snow conditions.

“It feels really good,” Forehand told NBC. “Usually when you have the podium position – I did two of the hardest tricks I’ve ever done in my life – and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll just do a straight air and get the podium or whatever because these tricks are so dangerous and so gnarly, but I was like, I couldn’t do that, I had to fight for the gold.

“I was in that moment. It’s hard to be in that position ever again. Second place, last run, you have to go, you have to bump the first person out. I knew I had to do it and it worked but then Tormod went up to his jump and he bumped me out. So I got the silver.”

Forehand scored a 95 on each of his first two runs and was in second after two. Two of the final three runs counted.

After his U.S. teammate Troy Podmilsak scored a 94 in his final run for fourth place, with three skiers left, Forehand was guaranteed a medal. But the final three runs would dictate which color.

Matei Svancer of Austria scored a 96 in his final run, moving him into second while Forehand moved to third.

Forehand scored a 98.25 on his final run, the highest score of the competition to that point, moving him into first place. Frostad, who was in the lead, needed a 96.25 to beat Forehand for the gold and he got more than that to win.

Forehand started skiing with his family when he was very young then followed his older sister Savannah into moguls skiing, moving to freestyle when he was 13. Forehand moved from Connecticut to Vermont in 2015 to further his skiing career at Stratton Mountain School. He now lives in Utah.

He had finished 11th in the slopestyle on Feb. 10 after coming into the finals in sixth place.

“Not my day today,” he posted on Instagram later that day. “Oh well big air next week :)”

Leading up to the Olympics, in late January, Forehand won the Big Air competition at the X Games in Aspen, Colo.

In 2022, he finished 11th in the Beijing Olympics in Big Air.

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