Sildaru, 19, had up to now been most well known for being the younger brother of freestyle star Kelly, who took bronze at the last winter games in Beijing in 2022, but he has emerged from behind his sibling's shadow to go one better, and is Estonia's only medalist at the Milano Cortina games, with just two days of competition left to go.

Hi 93.00 points on Friday were enough for him to get to join a select club of just five Estonians who have won Winter Olympics medals, and ahead of the final run he was even in the lead.

"A medal win sounds really great! Coming to the Olympics, I didn't directly expect that I would win a medal. There was definitely hope that if I did everything right, there would be a chance. Now I have a medal around my neck — very awesome," Sildaru rejoiced after the medal ceremony.

Sildaru failed on the first run, but in the second round he scored 92.75 points with a clean run and improved his result by 0.25 points in the final round.

"Going into the third run I tried to add more," he told ERR after the final.

"During the run there was no pressure — I focused only on the performance and tried to do it as well as possible," Sildaru went on. "It's very hard to say why several competitors failed. I also had a bit of bad luck on the fourth jump of the first run."

What does winning an Olympic medal mean for Sildaru? "Well, this medal is… I don't really know how to comment. I'm very happy it came and it certainly shows that the hard work paid off," he said. "Of course, the Olympics would have gone better if I had also reached the final in slopestyle, but no — an awesome experience!"

The halfpipe is one of three categories of freestyle skiing and involves performing a series of tricks while skiing down a semi-cylindrical slope.

Sildaru had competed in one halfpipe World Cup event this season, finishing 11th at the Buttermilk hub in Aspen, Colorado; he placed sixth at last year's world championships.

He had failed to qualify for the finals in the slopestyle and Big Air events earlier this week, placing 21st and 22nd respectively, making Friday's medal all the more satisfying.

He is also the first male freestyle skier to compete in all three categories at the olympics.

Today, #Estonia has once again shown that we are a true powerhouse in freestyle skiing! Huge congratulations to Henry Sildaru on winning #MilanoCortinaOlympics2026! What a fantastic evening with Estonia's Independence Day just a few days away. Long live Henry, long live ! pic.twitter.com/FSGQ9IxhfT

— Alar Karis (@AlarKaris) February 20, 2026

Qualification for the half-pipe had originally been scheduled for Thursday but was postponed by a day due to weather conditions. Twenty-five competitors were chasing 12 finals spots.

Sildaru took the third-best score in qualifying, 88.00, on his second outing, after the first did not go well.

"There are definitely jumps where we can add difficulty. We'll try those in the final," he told ERR after qualifying. "For the second run, we made the third jump a bit easier so it would be simpler to complete the run."

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Favorites for a medal included reigning world champion and World Cup overall leader Finley Melville Ives (New Zealand), Brendan Mackay (Canada) who put in the best qualfying run (92.75 points), Nick Goepper (U.S.), second in qualifying with 90.00 poonts, and Alex Ferreira (U.S.), yet the Estonian beat out all of them in the end, save for Ferreira, who clinched gold.

Melville Ives in particular had a bad day and failed to qualify.

In the final Friday night, Sildaru started his first run well enough, but fell on the fourth jump and scored only 24.25 points. As in qualifying, however, his second run was a vast improvement, as he landed all jumps cleanly and earned 92.75 points, even taking the lead ahead of the third and last run.

What a moment for Estonia! Congratulations, Henry Sildaru, we celebrate with you today! https://t.co/DXDQGdmwGt

— Estonian MFA | #StandWithUkraine (@MFAestonia) February 20, 2026

While Sildaru improved his score by 0.25 points with another strong run in the last attempt, Ferreira went half a point better to take gold with a score of 93.75.

But Sildaru's 93.00 points were still enough to secure silver. Mackay took bronze with 91.00 points from his last attempt; Goepper (89.00) and another American, Birk Irving (88.00), were just outside the medals.

 Sildaru was also the first male freestyle skier to compete at the Winter Olympics in all three disciplines: Halfpipe, slopestyle and Big Air. His goal is to continue this.

"I'll try to keep doing all of them. You do sport because you enjoy it, and why not do all three if you like them all," said Sildaru.

As to how he plans to celebrate the medal win, he simply replied: "I don't know. I'll call my family and for now just talk with them."

You can rewatch Sildaru's medal-winning effort and the medal awards ceremony by clicking on the video players above.

In addition to Henry and Kelly Sildaru, Estonia's all-time Winter Olympics medals winners are: Andrus Veerpalu (cross-country skiing gold and silver at Salt Lake City in 2002 and gold at the Turin games in 2006); Kristina Šmigun-Vähi (two cross-country skiing golds in Turin and a silver medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010) and Jaak Mae (cross-country skiing bronze in Salt Lake City).

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