LIVIGNO — Canadian ski cross star Reece Howden exited the Milan Cortina Olympics unexpectedly in the quarterfinals Saturday, but not before tearing a strip off games organizers for staging the competition in poor conditions.

The 27-year-old from Chilliwack, B.C., who is on track to win his fourth Crystal Globe as the FIS ski cross season champion, left the field in his tracks in the morning seeding run — finishing first by 0.99 seconds over his nearest competitor.

But the course, not the fastest to begin with, slowed as wet snow fell during the early afternoon knockout rounds. After Howden won his first four-man heat, it all went south as he finished fourth in his quarterfinal.

Only the top two advance.

“It really sucks that I’ve been training four years and this is what we get to compete in,” said Howden, who ripped his bib off in disgust after the race.

“This is just a joke really,” he added. “We would never run a downhill race in these conditions … I bet you we were going 10 to 15 seconds slower than this morning, at least. You can’t pass, it’s a whole different course. This is not ski cross.”

Facing three Italians in the quarterfinal, he had a good start only to slow down as if mired in mud.

“I came out of the gate and then just stopped,” he lamented.

He was overtaken, first by Simone Deromedis, then by Federico Tomasoni and finally by Dominik Zuech near the finish line as Howden seemed to give up knowing the cause was lost.

“We just shouldn’t be running in these conditions. It’s as simple as that in my opinion,” said Howden, who finished ninth four years ago in Beijing after falling at the same stage. “This is not a good example of what ski cross is … The entire world is watching this event and this is what we’re going to produce? It’s unfortunate.”

Deromedis, the 2023 world champion, went on to win gold with Tomasoni taking silver and 40-year-old Swiss racer Alex Fiva, a four-time Olympian who got silver four years ago in Beijing, grabbing bronze.

Flora Tabanelli had won bronze Monday in big air to end Italy’s 34-year Olympic freestyle skiing medal drought. The host country did not have to wait long for two more.

There was plenty of drama elsewhere with the three other Canadians.

Ottawa’s Jared Schmidt finished second in the first knockout heat, with a late comeback to seemingly move on to the quarterfinal — only to be disqualified. And Toronto’s Kevin Drury, a 37-year-old three-time Olympian who finished fourth in his quarterfinal, said the Canadian team got the wax wrong on the day, suggesting better-financed teams had got it right.

Gavin Rowell of Prince George, B.C., failed to make it out of the first knockout round.

Howden finished 13th with Drury 14th, Rowell 28th and Schmidt 31st.

Speed has been an issue for the ski cross racers all week especially after a snowfall. The 1,190-metre course is wider than most and features a vertical drop of just 154 metres.

“It’s an easy enough course, which is one of the issues I had in the first place. But it was safe (Saturday),” Drury, who was fourth in Pyeongchang and 12th in Beijing, said of the conditions. “It’s just if they wanted to put on a show, which they always say they do, this is not the show.”

Drury had other concerns.

“The sad reality is we just missed the wax. We have four guys trying to figure out this new system of wax with no fluoros (fluorinated waxes now banned) and other teams have massive facilities with millions of dollars in funding. We’re noticing it when you get this warm, new snow — conditions wet — this is where fluoros in the past, they shine.

“And so other teams have figured something out that we haven’t and it showed.”

Schmidt, meanwhile, was stunned by his disqualification. Officials ruled he had made contact from behind with another racer.

“You work so hard for four years and then you kind of feel like you get robbed like that. … A little tough for it to happen on such a big stage,” he said. “We’ll have to look at the video. From my point of view, I did nothing wrong.”

The DQ did not come immediately. The video scoreboards has shown Schmidt in second, moving on after a fine race.

“Then I was approached by one of the Finnish referees saying I had got a yellow card,” he said. “I don’t agree with it.”

Howden, known as Big Rig, has been on a roll for a while and was seen as an Olympic favourite.

He leads the World Cup standings by 133 points this season over Deromedis, his nearest rival. He previously won Crystal Globes in 2021, 2023 and 2025.

In December, Howden became the all-time leader in World Cup victories in men’s ski cross when he earned his 19th career win. By the end of January, he had increased his record win total to 22.

It marked the second day in a row that the Canadian ski cross team had taken it on the chin. Marielle Thompson, Brittany Phelan and Hannah Schmidt, Jared’s sister, all failed to make it past the women’s quarterfinals Friday.

Thompson won gold in 2014 in Sochi, silver in Beijing, and boasts 76 career World Cup podiums (including 36 wins) that rank second-best all-time. But the 33-year-old from Whistler, B.C., missed most of 2025 with a serious knee injury.

Phelan, who won silver in Pyeongchang and was fifth in Beijing, had to deal with a bout of COVID ahead of the race.

It was the final day of Olympic action at Livigno Snow Park and nearby Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2026.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press