Winter Olympics day 11 live: Australia’s men’s, women’s aerials in action, Ally Hickman in slopestyle final

The weather at Livigno looks brutal right now.

Our Olympic reporter, Simon Smale has just messaged calling conditions “horrible”.

He has sent through the list of runs for run one.

You can see in the Code column the list of all the runs the competitors are planning, and the DD column shows the level of difficulty.

Australia’s Danielle Scott — who is known for her ability to do triple twisting jumps — is making a considered start with a bFF (a back-full-full, or double twisting jump).

However two of the American chances, for example – Winter Vinecki and Kalia Kuhn – and China’s Xu Mengtao are going for bFFF (a back-full-full-full, a triple twisting somersault).

That’s what they’re planning in any case. Whether they stay with the plan given all this snow will be an interesting check.

A message has gone out from the race director, telling everyone that:

Due to unfavourable weather conditions, the Women’s Aerials Qualification has been rescheduled to 11:15 (9:15pm AEDT). 

By the looks of things, the snow is gathering, and people are busy trying to smooth things out and get the course ready for competition.

The rate of snowfall has not slowed at Livigno — it must be frustrating for all the aerial skiers.

There is no go-ahead for competition for now.

The question now is who will deal with this interruption and be able to maximise their first run, and who will be thrown off? 

The snow is REALLY coming down now, and these first few competitors will have to make calls on whether they go for it or just try to lay something simple down to make sure they get a score.

And now there is a course hold!

Is this going to be a brief lull in proceedings, or could it go for longer? This snow is not slowing down.

Unfortunate for Merkova who no doubt was getting ready to go.

We’re a couple of minutes away from the start of competition.

Danielle Scott is the first Australian on the order in run one, in seventh.

Sidney Stephens will be 10th to go off the ramp, Airleigh Frigo will be 13th and Abbey Willcox will go 20th out of the 2025.

It’s not as heavy as a couple of days ago when most events at Livigno were shut down, but it is definitely snowing at the aerials venue.

We’ll have to see whether it affects the competitors or not.

It’s been a long wait for the aerials competitors, but the competition is finally getting started in Livigno.

The four Aussies lining up for the women’s event are Danielle Scott, Abbey Willcox, Airleigh Frigo and Sidney Stephens.

Stephens is the late replacement for Laura Peel, who injured her knee prior to the Games and was ruled out the other day.

She is one of three Australian debutants, along with Frigo, who was eighth at this year’s world titles and Willcox, who was 10th in this year’s World Cup and fifth in last year’s World Cup.

Scott is a four-time Olympian, 2023 world championship silver medallist, and ranked seventh in the World Cup this season.

Beijing medallists: Xu Mengtao (CHN) gold; Hanna Huskova (BLR) silver; Megan Nick (USA) bronze.

There are some strong contenders outside the Australian  contingent as well.

China’s Kong Fanyu is a three-time Olympian and bronze medallist in Pyeongchang in 2018.

American Winter Viniecki is ranked fourth in World Cup this season. Her teammate Kaila Kuhn is the reigning aerials world champion.

The qualification will start with the opening round at 8:45pm AEDT, with round two scheduled for 9:30pm AEDT.

Our Olympic reporter at Milano Cortina, Simon Smale, has set out to answer the question: why is Australia so good at moguls skiing?

He quotes men’s dual moguls bronze medallist Matt Graham from last year after he and Jakara Anthony won World Cup events on the same day:

“We’re not a skiing nation. We’re a beach nation,” Graham said.

“So how the hell does this happen?”

With two golds and a bronze, if Australia’s moguls program was its own nation, it would be sitting ahead of the likes of China and Finland all by itself.

One of the biggest reasons Australia is leading the way across the world is the “elite” coaching panel, including Peter McNiel and Kate Blamey.

“It’s 100 per cent related to the coaching team and the coaching staff and just their total investment in the outcomes,” Snow Australia president Daniel Bosco told ABC Sport in Livigno.

You can read more in Simon’s feature below:

We have some more men’s curling round robin action from Cortina on day 11.

So far the two top teams are Switzerland, who have a perfect 5-0 record, and Canada, who have a 5-1 record.

There are three games early doors, with the Swiss taking on Sweden, the United States playing China, and Czechia facing Germany.

Later on day 11 the second-youngest member of the Australian team, Ally Hickman, will be in action in the women’s slopestyle final.

We are yet to see the team’s youngest competitor, Indra Brown compete — but we have now seen her in action in training for the freeski halfpipe.

For those of you whose blood pressure has risen watching the various iterations of the halfpipe so far, yes, it will probably be nerve-wracking.

But if the 16-year-old brings some of the form that sees her ranked number one in World Cup this season, then it could be pretty special as well.

Here are some pictures of her in action in training.

The women’s freeski halfpipe qualifying begins on Friday morning at 5:30am AEDT. Don’t miss it.

• Freestyle skiing: Danielle Scott, Abbey Willcox, Airleigh Frigo and Sidney Stephens will compete in women’s aerials qualification from 8:45pm AEDT

• Freestyle skiing: Ally Hickman will compete in the women’s slopestyle final from 11pm AEDT

• Freestyle skiing: Reilly Flanagan will be in men’s aerials qualification from 11:30pm AEDT

Hello, good evening and welcome to our live coverage of day 11 of the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.

Yesterday heavy snow limited the action at Livigno, but today there will be some Australian involvement in aerials and slopestyle, plus a range of other sports including curling, ice hockey, speed skating and figure skating.

My name is Andrew McGarry and I will be taking you through the action for the first part of the day before handing over to Luke Pentony.

Let’s get started!