Red Gerard Aims for Redemption at the 2026 winter olympics men's snowboarding slopestyle
Red Gerard, the 2018 Olympic slopestyle champion who rose from a surprise gold as a 17-year-old to become one of snowboarding’s most recognizable personalities, has returned to Olympic competition in Italy with one clear objective: win slopestyle and erase the disappointment of the last Games. The 25-year-old American arrived in Italy in February 2026 (ET) after a mixed start, including a 20th-place finish in big air qualifying, but makes no secret that slopestyle is where he belongs and where he hopes to make history.
From oversleeping to Olympic glory
Gerard’s first Olympic triumph remains the stuff of legend. In the 2018 final he barely believed he had qualified for the medal round, spent the night before the final watching television with a friend, then overslept the next morning. In the scramble to reach the venue he borrowed that friend’s jacket, two sizes too large, and still rode his way from 11th into first on his final run. He took gold by more than a point, becoming, at 17, the youngest American snowboarder to win Olympic gold and the youngest Winter Olympic champion since 1928.
That astonishment at his own success has always been part of Gerard’s public persona — an easygoing, self-aware rider who knows how fleeting fame can be. He has spoken about the surreal attention that followed the 2018 medal, the sudden spike in media obligations and the odd sensation of becoming briefly famous before returning to life on the snow and the contest circuit.
Judging frustrations and a path to redemption
The follow-up to that breakout success has been uneven. In the 2022 Games he arrived as defending champion and a frontrunner, but left frustrated with the results and vocal about what he described as inconsistent judging. The sting of that disappointment lingered, and it shaped his mindset heading into the 2026 program in Italy.
His early showing at these Games—a 20th-place finish in big air qualifying—was not a statement of intent so much as a reminder of the Olympic schedule’s demands. Gerard has been candid about his dislike for big air competition and about the requirement that snowboarders participate in both big air and slopestyle. He said he doesn’t particularly enjoy big air and would rather focus on slopestyle, the discipline that made his name.
Still, the slopestyle course is his domain. Gerard has been honing tricks since childhood, raised with five brothers and steeped in the X Games and Dew Tour culture that shaped a generation of park-and-pipe riders. If he can find the form that carried him to gold in 2018, he stands to become the first snowboarder to win two Olympic slopestyle gold medals.
What to watch in slopestyle
Expect Gerard to ride with a small measure of the swagger that defined his early career but also with a hunger born of unmet expectations. He has publicly framed the 2026 effort as a chance to put the Beijing disappointment behind him and to control what he can: clean runs, well-timed tricks and minimizing the variables that leave so much in the hands of judges.
For viewers, the narrative is compelling. Gerard’s career arc—surprise champion, outspoken critic of judging, and now a veteran chasing a rare second Olympic slopestyle title—gives the event stakes beyond a single medal. Whether he can translate the talk into a run that satisfies both the technical demands of the sport and the subjective tastes of the judges will determine whether this visit to Italy ends with redemption or another unresolved chapter.
As the weekend approaches, all eyes will be on the slopestyle field and on Gerard’s ability to channel both his laid-back charisma and competitive intensity into a final that could cement his place in snowboarding history.
