MILAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese freeskier Gu Ailing won her second silver medal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in the women's big air on Monday, while Dutch short track speed skater Xandra Velzeboer captured her second gold medal of the Games with victory in the women's 1,000 meters.

In a competition delayed by over an hour due to wind and snowfall in Livigno, and which saw one of the top contenders, Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, withdraw after sustaining a hip injury during warm-up, Gu, who had not contested a major women's big air event since winning gold at the Beijing Games, finished with 179.00 points, just 1.75 behind the winner, Megan Oldham of Canada.

Gu had claimed a slopestyle silver at Milan-Cortina.

On Monday, she opened with a strong 90.00-point run, slipped slightly on landing for 61.25 in her second attempt, then responded under pressure with 89.00 points in the final round.

With the silver, Gu now owns five Winter Olympic medals, the most by any woman in freeski history.

"There's a ring to a five-time Olympic medalist," Gu said. "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."

Oldham, who placed fourth at Beijing 2022, took gold with scores of 91.75 and 89.00 in her first two runs. The victory marks her second Olympic medal of Milan-Cortina 2026, following a bronze in slopestyle.

"I'm on cloud nine right now. I'm still processing everything. I don't even think the emotion has fully hit me yet," said the Canadian.

Italy's Flora Tabanelli, 18, delighted the home crowd by earning bronze, highlighted by a competition-best 94.25 in her final run.

In Milan, Velzeboer clocked one minute and 28.437 seconds to secure the women's short track 1,000m title, adding to her 500m triumph on Thursday.

"Before the race, I was already feeling like I can do this. I was very focused. In short track, everything is very close, but I actually managed to win. It is unbelievable," said Velzeboer.

Courtney Sarault of Canada won silver, her second at these Games, while South Korea's Kim Gil-li took bronze.

Earlier in the men's 5,000m relay semifinals, the Chinese quartet of Liu Shaoang, Lin Xiaojun, Li Wenlong and Zhang Bohao kept a low profile in the early stages before launching several overtakes in the middle and latter laps to briefly take the lead. However, on the final lap, Liu slipped unexpectedly on a curve, allowing Canada and Italy to seize the opportunity and finish as the top two in the group to qualify for Final A, while China missed out in 6:55.278.

In Alpine skiing, Switzerland's Loic Meillard overcame treacherous conditions to capture gold in the men's slalom, as Norway's Atle Lie McGrath failed to finish after leading the first run.

McGrath, the current world No. 1 in the FIS rankings, set the pace with a run of 56.14 seconds, holding a 0.59-second advantage over Meillard heading into the second run. However, the Norwegian missed an early gate in his second run and recorded a DNF, storming off the piste as his gold medal hopes vanished.

Meillard delivered a composed performance to post a winning combined time of 1:53.61. Austria's Fabio Gstrein clocked 1:53.96 to take silver, while Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen finished 1.13 seconds behind Meillard to secure bronze.

Meillard, the reigning world champion, thus concluded the men's alpine skiing program at Milan-Cortina with a complete set of medals, having taken silver in the team combined and bronze in the giant slalom.

In the pairs figure skating, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara bounced back from a fifth-place finish in the short program to triumph with 231.24 points, thanks to their competition-high 158.13 in the free skate.

The Georgian pair of Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava finished runners-up, while short program leaders Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany took bronze.

China's returning Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong placed fifth on 208.64, moving one place up from the short program.

Six gold medals were determined on Monday, with American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor bagging home the women's monobob title with a combined time of 3:57.93, while Austria scored 568.7 points to clinch the inaugural men's ski jumping super team gold.

Norway tops the medal table with 12 gold, seven silver and nine bronze medals, followed by Italy and the United States in second and third place, respectively. ■