{"id":594681,"date":"2026-02-16T19:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/594681\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:51:11","slug":"olympic-meltdown-norways-atle-lie-mcgrath-loses-gold-medal-in-slalom-then-control-of-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/594681\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic meltdown: Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath loses gold medal in slalom, then control of emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

BORMIO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Atle Lie McGrath\u2019s gold-medal hopes in the Olympic slalom<\/a> slipped away. His ski poles were then thrown away. And then he simply stumbled away through the snow toward the woods.<\/p>\n

It was all part of an epic Olympic meltdown that turned Monday\u2019s race into high-tragic theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that I would get some peace and quiet, which I didn\u2019t,\u201d the Norwegian ski racer said of his retreat from the course after losing out on a medal. \u201cBecause photographers and police found me out in the woods. But I just needed some time for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath, who was born in Vermont but grew up in Norway, entered the final run of the final men\u2019s race at the Milan Cortina Games<\/a> with a big lead in his best event. But after straddling a gate, McGrath lost a medal and then control of his emotions in a race won by Loic Meillard of Switzerland.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old McGrath tossed each pole over the safety netting lining the Stelvio course. He then climbed the fencing on the other side of the course and made his way through the snow to the edge of the wilderness, where he laid on his back.<\/p>\n

McGrath later arrived in the finish area and walked away without talking. More than two hours later, he met the media at a nearby Bormio hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m normally a guy that\u2019s very good when it comes to perspective on things,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if I don\u2019t ski well in a race, I can at least tell myself that I\u2019m healthy and my family\u2019s healthy and the people I love are here. So that\u2019s nice, but that\u2019s not been the case. I\u2019ve lost someone I love so much and that makes it really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath has been racing with a heavy heart, with his grandfather dying the day of the opening ceremony<\/a>. He wore an armband as a tribute.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s gone through these last 10, 12 days, it\u2019s been really tough,\u201d said teammate Timon Haugan, who finished fourth in Monday\u2019s race. \u201cHe\u2019s been really sad. He started to do better and today he\u2019s going through … we need to really back him up today.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGrath was close to a medal, too. Very close. His mistake happened right in front of a Swiss coach standing on the course, whose celebration for Meillard\u2019s now-guaranteed gold medal caused the team to later apologize to the Norwegians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave myself the absolute best opportunity you could today,\u201d McGrath said. \u201cI skied so great, and I still couldn\u2019t get it done. So that\u2019s what really hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haugan felt for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just heartbreaking,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s doing everything perfect. He did a very good first run, put himself in a position to win the Olympic gold. He does everything right and then that happens in 15 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bronze medalist Henrik Kristoffersen, McGrath\u2019s Norwegian teammate, knows the feeling. Kristoffersen was leading the slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games only to ski out in the second run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, it\u2019s another ski race. In the end, it\u2019s not going to make or break Atle\u2019s career,\u201d Kristoffersen said. \u201cHe is a great skier. If he keeps going like he\u2019s going, he will have great success for the future. This is just our sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how it goes sometimes. I\u2019ve been in this exact same position, and done the same thing (skied out). And yes, it hurts. But it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The emotional outburst?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s allowed,\u201d Kristoffersen said. \u201cThis is sports. What are sports without the emotions?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meillard echoed that thought. It\u2019s a fickle discipline, where a racer weaves through a tight course set.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of slalom is that when it works out it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d Meillard said. \u201cI was definitely sorry for him, but at the end, all the times he won when I skied out \u2014 that\u2019s part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McGrath, there won\u2019t be anymore alone time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent my time in the woods,\u201d McGrath said with a laugh. \u201cSo now I\u2019m going to spend time with the people I love and that\u2019s all I need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I need quite a bit of time to process this and it\u2019s going to be extremely tough. We\u2019ll see how it goes, but at least I\u2019m surrounded by great people who love me and who I love. I\u2019m at least happy that they\u2019ll be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BORMIO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Atle Lie McGrath\u2019s gold-medal hopes in the Olympic slalom slipped away. His ski poles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":594682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[224667,191963,245978,57,256741,254271,44831,235115,62,256740,67,132,68,107],"class_list":["post-594681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-general-news","tag-henrik-kristoffersen","tag-norway-olympic-team","tag-olympic-games","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-timon-haugan","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116082054789189518","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}