Winter Olympics 2026: Japan's Ikuma Horishima crosses finish line backward โ unintentionally โ in chaotic race en route to silver
Dual moguls are chaos.ย
Japan's Ikuma Horishima botched his landing on his last jump in the men's round of 16 Sunday at the Milan Cortina Olympics, then bounced back up to ski backward over the finish line. And he still won.ย
Despite the mishap, Horishima still crossed the finish line first ahead of USA's Nick Page and eventually advanced to the event's gold-medal race. There he finished behind Canada's Mikaรซl Kingsbury to win silver in the first ever men's dual moguls competition at the Olympics. Australia's Matt Graham won the consolation final to secure bronze.ย
Here's how it happened. Horishima, skiing on the right in the video below, started to lose control of his run after the first of two jumps. But he didn't miss a gate and recovered in time to hit the ramp for his second jump.
He crash landed on the jump, but maintained his downhill momentum and popped back up skiing backward before the finish line, where he crossed just ahead of Page.ย
"I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES." ๐ณ
โ NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 15, 2026
Dual moguls madness as Nick Page skis out of the course for a DNF while his opponent, Ikuma Horishima, barely stays in control and skis over the line BACKWARDS for the win. pic.twitter.com/hFqqi5gnQE
It turned out that he didn't need to cross first as Page missed a gate during his own rocky run and was disqualified. As long as Horishima completed a legal run, he would be declared the winner.
It added up to the second wild dual moguls finish in as many days.
One of the women's semifinals on Saturday saw similar chaos. In that race, USA's Jaelin Kauf crashed early, and appeared to be done. But her competitor, France's Perrine Laffont, missed one of her gates and was disqualified. Kauf got back up from her crash and eventually crossed the finish line to secure the win due to Laffont's disqualification.
Jaelin Kauf advanced to the Dual Moguls big final after a BIZARRE ending in her semifinal. ๐ฎ
โ NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 14, 2026
Her opponent, Perrine Laffont, was disqualified after skiing around the course control panel. Kauf crashed but managed to complete her run and went on to take the Silver medal. pic.twitter.com/MS5YYVxOOf
Like Horishima on Sunday, Kauf rode her good fortune to a silver medal, her second of the Games and third in Olympic competition.