The No. 1-ranked man on the World Cup circuit and the pre-race favourite coming into Milano Cortina 2026, Reece Howden of Cultus Lake, B.C., was eliminated in the quarterfinals, and told CBC it was “an absolute joke” that the race went ahead in snowy conditions that slowed the course to a relative crawl. He toned down his criticism only a bit when speaking to reporters in the mixed zone.
“There’s a lot of people that are watching me here compete, friends and family. And it just sucks that this is what we have to compete in. The course is falling apart. I’ve trained four years for this and these are the conditions that we have to race in? It’s really, really unfortunate.