From left, American gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, American bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and German silver medalist Laura Nolte celebrate at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, on Monday. (AP photo)

MILAN — Small margins decided gold medals at the Milan Cortina Olympics as Eileen Gu had to settle for another silver in defense of her big air ski freestyle title and Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. finally won bobsled gold in her fifth Olympics.

Also on Day 10 of the Winter Games, a Norwegian contender’s emotional reaction overshadowed the last men’s Alpine ski event, and the U.S. and Canada advanced to another gold medal showdown in women’s hockey after winning their semifinal games.

Silver again

Gu came to Italy to fight for gold medals in three different freestyle ski events. She has two silvers and still has her best event, the halfpipe, to go.

After a long delay because of heavy snow, it was Canada’s Megan Oldham who soared to victory with a combined score of 180.75 to Gu’s 179.

It was still a remarkable performance from Gu, the San Francisco-born skier for China who hadn’t competed in big air in the four years since winning gold at the 2022 Olympics.

The athlete who beat Gu to the gold in slopestyle last week, Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, was ruled out of the big air final when she injured her hip in practice hours before.

Wait is over

Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang, Beijing. Meyers Taylor won at least one medal at each of her first four Olympics, but the gold always eluded her.

No longer.

The 41-year-old American won that long-awaited medal by just four hundredths of a second in women’s monobob when the last competitor, Germany’s Laura Nolte, made a small but costly mistake on her final run.

Meyers Taylor’s sixth career medal extends her record as the most decorated Black athlete at the Winter Olympics. She’s also the oldest American woman to win gold at the Winter Games.

US-Canada for gold

The U.S. and Canada will play for the gold medal on Thursday after the U.S. routed Sweden 5-0 and Canada struggled past Switzerland 2-1 in Monday’s semifinal games.

U.S. goaltender Aerin Frankel preserved a shutout streak which now stands at 331 minutes. The U.S. team is unbeaten and has allowed just one goal all tournament as it seeks a first gold medal since 2018.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin broke the all-time Olympic scoring record with two goals in an unusually narrow win for Canada.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics