Top Five Fridays: February 13, 2026
It was a big week for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team at the Olympics, with several podium finishes and multiple gold medals. More on that below! Image: U.S. Ski Team on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the February 13, 2026 edition! This week, Olympic results were all the talk as Team U.S.A. put in some surprising results not only in Alpine, but in XC and Freestyle Skiing as well. With tons to talk about, we’ve opted to do an Olympic coverage double header this week, before switching gears to share a couple of quick updates from the world of Freeride and then ultimately rounding things out this week with some big news from our nextdoor neighbors at Smuggler’s Notch. Sound good? Then let’s go.
#1: Olympic Recap Part 1 - The High Highs and Low Lows From This Year’s Olympic Alpine Ski Racing:
For those of you who have been following along with Olympic results, you probably already know that this week’s good news is also going to come with a heavy dose of bad news. So, with that in mind, let’s start there. The bad news is this: just 9 days after rupturing her ACL, Lindsey Vonn suffered another devastating crash in the Downhill at Milano Cortina and was once again airlifted off the venue. While critics might jump to the conclusion that Vonn returned to racing too soon, she adamantly pushed back on that assertion in a post-crash post, saying, “I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash. My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.” Regardless of the cause, Vonn went down in what will quite likely be the final crash of her career, as it resulted in a complex tibial fracture which has so far required three surgeries to correct. It’s truly an unfortunate ending to an incredible career, and while it’s not the ending that Vonn would have liked, the takeaway from this final year should not be that fact that she crashed. Instead, the takeaway should be what she accomplished before the crash: returning from retirement to earn seven podiums in eight starts this season. And for what it’s worth, the one start in which she missed a podium, she finished 4th. All in all, while the end isn’t what she hoped for, it would be hard to consider this season anything but a success for Vonn. We wish her well in her recovery.
That was the bad news. From here, things get much, much better.
Going into the Olympics, there’s no question that Vonn was the favorite to win the Downhill from the American team. When she crashed, there were concerns that the U.S. Team might miss out on the podium. And then, Breezy Johnson took the start gate.
Racing on the same course that she suffered a season ending crash on in 2022, it was immediately clear that Johnson had something to prove as she skied the course in an incredibly aggressive manner. The result was stunning success: Breezy Johnson shocked the field and took home the gold - her first ever Olympic medal, and the first for Team USA at this iteration of the Winter Olympics. Notably, Johnson was nearly joined on the podium by her teammate Jacqueline Wiles, who took home fourth. We’ve said it time and time again, but the U.S. Women’s Alpine team is incredibly deep. Even without their undisputed veteran leader, the team still took 1st and 4th at the Olympic Games; an incredible success.
From there, the good times kept rolling. Two days after the Downhill, two American teams took the starting gates to compete in the Team Combined event, an exciting race format in which one athlete competes in Downhill and another competes in Slalom. Those times are combined for a final time. In that race, Team USA paired Breezy Johnson who’d just won the gold in Downhill, with Mikaela Shiffrin, the best women’s Slalom racer in the world. Additionally, Paula Moltzan formed a team with Jacqueline Wiles, with Moltzan racing Slalom and Wiles competing in Downhill. So, which U.S. Team do you think won between the two? Welp, you’re probably wrong. When all was said and done, it was Wiles and Moltzan who took the honor, finishing in third place in the event and earning the bronze medal. Just .06 seconds behind them however, were Shiffrin and Johnson. While neither team won the event, having four athletes take home 3rd and 4th just yet again shows the depth of the team.
On the men’s side of things, there’s even more to celebrate, as Ryan Cochran-Siegle repeated his 2022 Olympic success with another silver in this year’s Super G. Making that result even more sweet were the struggles of the days that preceded it. On Saturday, RCS competed in the Downhill race, but that wasn’t his only battle of the day. As it turns out, he also had food poisoning. As a result, he turned in an 18th place performance - undoubtedly a disappointment in his mind.
While there are a number of other solid results we could go over, we’ve got a ton to discuss this week, so we’ll simply turn you over to the results pages to check those for yourself. From here, we take a day off before action returns tomorrow with the men’s Giant Slalom race, followed by the Women’s GS on Sunday, Men’s Slalom Monday, and Women’s Slalom on Wednesday. You can preview that schedule here, and check back next week for a full recap of results!
#2: Olympic Recap Part 2 - The U.S. Team Finds More Medals in Freeski, Mogul, and XC Events:
Moving on from alpine action, we want to spend some time this week sharing results from some of the other Olympic ski sports. To get that effort started, we’ll focus on men’s Freeskiing, where Alex Hall cashed in for the American Team. Taking place on Tuesday of this week, the men’s slopestyle was a polarizing event in multiple ways. For starters, the level of competition was ridiculously high, with some absolutely jaw dropping trick attempts going down, such as Jesper Tjader’s “switch blender overflip disaster to switch” (shout out to DownDays.eu for helping us decipher this one). Unfortunately though, several runs throughout finals just never quite materialized, with athletes dropping just one trick somewhere along the way, dooming their run. At the end of the day though, Birk Rudd, Alex Hall, and Luca Harrington all put down highly impressive runs, finishing on the podium in that order. Getting back to that polarizing comment though, the exact order of these three athletes has been highly debated in online forums as each one could make the case for being the top run. For our part, we’re not here to argue over it - we’re just happy to be able to say that Alex Hall took home a silver medal for Team America. Looking ahead in Freeski, we still have women’s Big Air on Monday, men’s Big Air on Tuesday, men’s Halfpipe next Friday, and women’s Halfpipe next Saturday. You can preview that event schedule here.
In other Freestyle ski news, we’re excited to share the results from a discipline that we rarely cover here: mogul skiing. That’s because on Wednesday of this week, the women’s mogul team put an absolute stamp on this year’s games. Coming in first place in that event was 20 year old athlete Liz Lemley, who was making her Olympic debut. In her run, Lemley combined not only a fast time with perfect turns, but also incredible trick execution - taking difficult tricks rather large, and making them look easy. Perhaps even more impressively, Lemley wasn’t the only American on the podium. Finishing right behind her in second place was her teammate Jaelin Kauf. Kauf, who also won the silver medal in the 2022 games and is the 2025 World Dual Moguls Champion, leaned into her speed to carry her to the podium while playing her second air just a touch safer. The result was a run good enough to beat every other nation, but not quite good enough to land her on top of the podium. Ultimately the U.S. women went 1 and 2 in the moguls comp. You can see the full results here.
Finally, we want to shift gears once again and talk about some exciting XC results. As you know, the U.S. Team has been doing quite well this season, with Jessie Diggins continuing to prove herself as the greatest American XC skier of all time. Being what will be the last Olympics of her career, this year’s Games provide an opportunity to further cement her legacy. So far, she’s done just that. In the women’s 10k Sprint yesterday, Diggins left everything she had on the course, managing to finish the race in third place, adding a fourth Olympic medal to her resume. Looking ahead, Diggins has one more opportunity to earn an individual medal in the 50km Mass Start, and two more chances at team medals in the 4x7.5km relay and the Team Spring events.
Perhaps the most surprising result coming out of the XC category of the Olympics though can be credited to Ben Ogden. Having only been on two World Cup race podiums and one stage podium throughout his roughly 6 year career, no one would’ve guessed that Ogden would have earned his best finish ever on the Olympic stage. But, that’s exactly what he did. In the Men’s Sprint event on Tuesday, Ogden posted the second fastest time, taking home the silver medal. In doing so, he made history, as it was the first time the U.S. won a men’s XC Olympic medal since 1976. Thus far, it’s arguably the most sensational result of the Olympics for the U.S. Team. To see the results from this race, as well as to preview the upcoming XC schedule, click here.
#3: Freeride Update Double Header: Kings and Queens of Corbets is a GO For Today, While Natural Selection Ski Announces 5 New Wildcard Athletes:
In other, non-Olympic but still competitive news, we just wanted to take a moment to share a couple of updates from the world of Freeride skiing. First up on that list is a brief reminder that the Jackson Hole Kings and Queens of Corbet’s event has been confirmed for today. This time around, the event promises to be as unruly as ever, with over a foot of fresh snow having fallen on the course over the last 24 hours. Additionally, athletes like Wyatt Gentry and Kelly Hilleke have been leaking shots on their Instagram throughout the week, showing not only a questionably large jump entering the couloir, but a pretty ideal looking park jump at the bottom of the venue. Between these features, the foot of fresh snow, and the madness that always ensues at this event, we suspect we’ll be seeing highlights from this event for at least the next 1-2 weeks. If you happen to have time to watch it live today, you can stream it on YouTube via Freeskier, right now.
The other highlight from this world that we want to share is that an additional round of wildcard athletes for this year's Natural Selection Ski event has been announced. We’ve talked about this event a good bit already, so we won’t get too deep into the details, but the long and short of it is that the NST is a freeride style event akin to the Freeride World Tour, but utilizing a head to head bracket format and venues that allow athletes to highlight their bag of tricks more than their technical skiing. If you didn’t catch last year’s event, we recommend clearing the schedule (after Kings and Queens of course) and giving it a watch.
Another aspect of the NST events that make them unique is the heavy use of the wildcard. While some athletes from last year did qualify for this year, half of the field for both men and women will be new faces. Amongst those, one athlete will qualify through the NST qualifier event in Tahoe in a month, while the others have been handpicked by the event’s advisory council, which is made up of several freeski veterans and legends in their own right. This week, we finally learned who this advisory council has chosen.
Probably the most exciting and intriguing name on the list is Tanner Hall, who first came onto the scene over 25 years ago. While that might make you wonder if he’s still got the skills to compete, recent footage from his appearance in Armada’s team video “Ornada” show that he’s still skiing at a very high level (bring backs in the backcountry anyone?). Plus, if Lindsey Vonn has taught us anything this season, it’s to never count a ski veteran out too soon. Joining Tanner Hall will be Karl Fostvedt - namesake of K2’s Reckoner KF - as well as Finn Bilous, who has both podiumed on the Freeride World Tour and competed in the Olympics as a slopestyle athlete. On the women’s side, standout FWT skier Astrid Cheylus has received an invite, as has movie part extraordinaire, Tatum Monod. At this point, we know the event will happen in Valdez, Alaska, with a broadcast of the event releasing on April 14th. As for the full roster of athletes, we’ll have to wait to see the results of the qualifier event in Tahoe, scheduled for March 17th. As soon as we hear what happens there, we’ll be sure to report back. For now, check out Powder Magazine’s coverage for additional information.
#4: Burke Mountain’s New Owners Have Just Acquired a Majority Interest in Smugglers’ Notch:
Finally, for our last highlight this week, we’re switching gears to celebrate some news that broke in our neighborhood on Wednesday of this week. If you’re familiar with the Stowe region, you might already know that Smuggler’s Notch is located on the backside of Spruce Peak - one of Stowe’s two mountains. You also might know that there’s been rumors in recent years that the independent owners of Smuggs have been looking to sell the resort. This week, that finally happened.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the group that bought Burke Mountain back in April, Bear Den Partners (BDP), has just purchased a controlling interest in Smuggler’s Notch. As a quick refresher, Bear Den Partners is a group of regional business people who’ve shown an interest and investment in community driven ski areas. Amongst the owners are members of the Graham family, who had invested heavily in Burke Mountain prior to their involvement in BDP, as well as Jon Schafer, who owns Berkshire East in Massachusetts. As it turns out, the background and credentials of this investment group is exactly what piqued the interest of the outgoing Smuggler’s Notch ownership team.
In an announcement made by Jon Schaefer, the CEO of BDP, it’s made clear that this transaction came about as a result of the owners of Smuggler’s Notch reaching out to Bear Den Partners over the summer. Reading between the lines of the press release, it sounds like Bill Stritzler, who owned Smuggs for nearly 30 years, had been looking for a way to sell the resort (the rumors were true). When he saw that BDP had purchased Burke, he saw an opportunity to sell the controlling interest in Smuggs to a group that he trusted to have the community he built in mind. As such, he reached out, pitching them on the idea of using Smuggs as a way to increase their buying power to reduce costs for both resorts in areas like fuel, electricity, and additional operational needs, while also giving them more influence with their banking relationships.
In other words, by adding Smuggs to BDP’s roster, it would reduce the overhead cost of both resorts, making them each more profitable. After much consideration, it would appear that BDP agreed with the concept, and thus we have this week’s news.
From here, not much is set to change in the season ahead. Bill Stritzler’s daughter will remain an advisor at the resort, representing the family’s remaining minority interest and ensuring a smooth transition. While pass reciprocity between Burke, Smuggs, Berkshire East, and Catamount Mountain Resort in New York is possible in future seasons, the gameplan for this year is to keep things as they are and get through the year before regrouping in the Summer.
As for local sentiment? I just so happened to be at Smuggs the day the news broke, so I asked around a bit. In general, the vibe was positive, with a sense of relief that the new owners are seemingly community oriented and not a massive corporation. So with that, we’ll say congrats to the new owners of Smuggs as well as the great community there! To learn more about this, check out the report from Seven Days VT.