Durangoan finished 13th, still has dual moguls on Sunday
Durango’s Charlie Mickel competes in men’s moguls on Thursday in Livigno, Italy, in the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Courtesy of Chris Randour/U.S. Ski Team)
MILAN – After a great Thursday morning qualifying run to take good momentum into the afternoon men’s moguls final at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Durango’s Charlie Mickel couldn’t deliver a run quite strong enough to get into the “super final” and fight for a medal.
His second qualifying (Q2) run in the morning of 77.82 had been an improvement on his first qualifying run (Q1) of 75.31 on Tuesday, and that improvement continued with his “F1” final run – where the top 20 are pared down to eight for the “super final” (F2) to determine the winner.
Mickel scored 78.03, but that was only good enough for 13th place.
“I thought it was a great run. I was happy to see that. Yeah, just kind of had a smooth run, top to bottom,” said the 21-year-old, who clenched his fist after he crossed the finish line and waved his ski pole in celebration.
He was speaking moments after he received his score, but when he still had to wait for 12 others to do their runs down the 804-feet course with a gradient of 28 degrees, about the same steepness as a typical set of stairs in a house, before finding out his final ranking.
“It’s super difficult (to make the super final),” Mickel said. “I thought I pretty much did what I could there, and I thought I had laid it down. I hope it squeezes in, but if not, I know that I really did what I could, and I skied a great run, and I was in a good place mentally, so, you know, whatever the outcome is, it is what it is. I’m just grateful to be here, and I’m glad that I was able to ski a great run.”
Mikel, who placed third on the same Livigno course last year at the World Cup stop there, was reflective about having just appeared in his first Olympic competition. He said he hopes youngsters in Durango might be able to draw inspiration from what he achieved.
“It’s really cool to come from Durango,” said the son of Alex and Molly, who were in Italy watching their son. “I think I’m the first winter Olympian in a downhill sport out of that town, so I maybe faced some challenges coming up that skiers who were born in a bigger skiing town didn’t have to face.
“I hope that young athletes from the Durango area who are into freestyle skiing, or into any sort of downhill skiing, can look at me and see that it is possible,” he said. “If you have a dream, follow it, because it’s the most fulfilling thing you can do.”
These Olympic Games are not over for Mickel. On Sunday, there will be the Olympic debut of dual moguls, when 32 skiers will go head-to-head in a tournament-style elimination format. His best result in that discipline in World Cup events is seventh place.
Thursday’s slalom was won by Australian Cooper Woods, edging Mikael Kingsbury, the greatest moguls skier of all time, who had to settle for silver. For the first time in a major competition, a tiebreaker of a higher turning score was needed because both competitors had an overall score of 83.71. The bronze was won by Japan’s Ikuma Horishima with a score of 83.44. He also won bronze in Beijing four years ago.
