Olympics sparks outrage after cancelling event final amid heavy snow

An Olympic event came to a screeching halt on Monday, Feb. 16 when the men’s super team ski jumping final was called off thanks to a heavy snowstorm that rolled through the area.

Instead of postponing the event, the Olympics decided to award medals based on the first two rounds of competition. Austria, which took a commanding lead after earning the highest score in each of the first two rounds, cruised to a gold medal and likely would’ve needed a disastrous third round to lose.

Meanwhile, Poland, which won silver in the event, was also strong in the first two rounds with the third-highest score in the first round and second-highest score in the second round.

However, the controversy starts with the bronze medal.

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Norway, which continues to dominate the overall medal count, took home the bronze medal by scoring 538 points, just 0.3 points ahead of fourth-place Germany. In fact, four countries were separated by a total of 2.8 points from Norway in third place to Japan in sixth place.

“It is what it is. But yeah, I’m a bit unhappy,” Germany’s Philipp Raimund, who won a gold medal in the normal hill individual competition earlier in the Games, said after the event.

“The result is not what I wanted because on every competition we came to win a medal, but it wasn’t a fortunate day for us,” added Domen Prevc of Slovenia, which finished in fifth place. “And like 1.9 points (behind third place), it’s a really small difference. Unfortunately, the luck was not on our side today.”

Fans watching from home were just as irate.

“These athletes trained for 4 years and you can’t postpone something a day or two? What am I missing here? Seems pretty unfair for the athlete who thought they had a third round to go…” sports photographer Melina Myers said.

“Good call since the Olympics only has 6 days left. No way to fit it in,” said another sarcastically.

“Imagine training for 4 years and then having them end your chance at a medal because they couldn’t wait an hour for snow to stop falling,” offered another.

“So, the #WinterOlympics2026 , which happens during the winter, cancelled one of the top events that people like to watch because of…winter? LOL,” questioned another.

The winter weather quickly subsided after the decision to cancel the event as medals were being distributed.

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