Olympic superstar Eileen Gu beaten to gold again as blizzardous conditions wreak havoc

American-born Chinese skiing champion Eileen Gu, one of the standout performers of the Beijing 2022 Olympics, was forced to settle for her second silver medal at Milano Cortina on a day blizzardous conditions wreaked havoc.

So heavy was the snowfall and gusty the winds in Italy's north on Tuesday (AEDT) that organisers decided to scrap the final of the men's super team ski jumping and use the second-round results to determine the medals.

Not everyone agreed.

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The women's free ski big air final, held in Livigno, was initially postponed by 30 minutes. The delay was then pushed out to 90 minutes, and finally 75 minutes.

Once it was eventually deemed safe enough for the competition to go ahead, it was Canada's Megan Oldham who snared gold.

She produced scores of 91.75 and 89.00, and a total score of 180.75, to edge out Gu (179.00) and Italy's Flora Tabanelli (178.25) and claim her maiden Olympic gold medal.

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At the age of only 18, Gu captured two gold medals and a silver at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. The freestyle skier triumphed in the big air and halfpipe, and grabbed silver in the slopestyle.

At these Games, however, she's fallen short of gold in both the big air and slopestyle, picking up silver in each.

She registered scores of 90.00 and 89.00 with her first and third runs in the big air final, but only 61.25 with her second.

It is worth noting Gu was competing in big air for the first time since winning Olympic gold in 2022.

The 22-year-old could yet leave Milano Cortina with a gold medal hanging around her neck, with halfpipe qualification scheduled to begin on Friday (AEDT).

Gu is seemingly content with her big air result.

"There's a ring to a five-time Olympic medallist," she said.

"I had so much fun today, and I'm just proud of all the girls for showing out when it really counted.

"The expectations were, I wouldn't say low, but I was just trying to take it one step at a time going into my first big air competition in four years, and just go out there and ski and see what happens."

Gold in the men's super team ski jumping was won by Austria, with Poland picking up silver and Norway bronze.

German skier Philipp Raimund expressed his disappointment in organisers wiping the final, held in Predazzo, and using the second-round results to determine the medals.

"It is what it is, but yeah, I'm a bit unhappy," Raimund said.

According to Reuters, the snowfall eased shortly after the competition was called off, and before the medal ceremony.

"All people think the same; they think they should have waited longer," Japanese skier Ren Nikaido told Reuters.

Norwegian skier Johann Forfang put forward a different view.

"I think the decision in the end was necessary," Forfang said.

"When the snow was that dense and tight, it covered the tracks and the speed went too much down to continue.

"And if they were to finish the round, then that would be more unfair than cancelling the second or the third round."

International Ski and Snowboard Federation race director Sandro Pertile defended the decision.

"We had this sudden, heavy snowfall, wet snowfall, and we were trying to clean the track, but we saw immediately that we lost the speed in the in-run," Pertile said.

"We also had completely different wind conditions. The wind was starting from behind, into a head wind, and with these conditions it was really unfair to continue.

"We have in our rules the possibility to cancel the round. Sometimes this happens, and it was happening tonight."