Luca Harrington has claimed New Zealand's second medal at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, taking bronze at the men's freestyle skiing slopestyle event.

Norway's Birk Ruud took gold, while silver went to American Alex Hall.

Harrington - one of the youngest competitors at 21 - was fourth on course, followed by fellow New Zealander Ben Barclay in sixth. Each had three runs to post their top score.

Barclay was the first competitor to land a complete run, earning a solid first run score of 69.40. Harrington came out swinging and was lacing together a super stylish run, but came unstuck on the switch triple cork 16 on jump two.

Run two was a throwaway for both Kiwis, with the triple cork 1620 continuing to give Harrington trouble, and Barclay coming off a rail early at the top of the course.

That left Barclay sitting in fifth place and Harrington in ninth going into the third and final run.

Harrington managed to clean up in run three, this time stomping his landing on the triple cork 1620 and finishing off with a clean 1440 on the third and last jump.

His score of 85.15 took him to third place, and earned New Zealand's second medal of the games.

Barclay dropped in for his third run but once again came off a rail too early, finishing eighth overall.

Harrington said the day had been "a battle" for all competitors.

"We didn't get perfect conditions, but that's part of our sport. I was feeling a lot of pressure, a lot of crazy emotions going on being here at the Olympics, being in the finals and wanting to do everyone proud. Putting something down that you're proud of was hard. I did not land my first two runs, which made that even tougher, but on that final run, I took a step back and kind of embraced the moment and managed to gain that confidence and managed to go through my full run clean," he said.

"Standing at the top, representing New Zealand, representing my family, wearing an Olympic bib in the finals, that was such a special moment. I think that's what motivated me to really embrace that and land that last run. To get rewarded with a haka from my team was such an honour."

Barclay had been hoping to put down cleaner runs based on the tricks he had trained, but was happy enough with the outcome, adding that he was "over the moon to see Luca Harrington on the steps at the end".

"To get a front row seat the last few years to the amount of hard work, dedication and sacrifice that Luca and his coach Hamish MacDougall have both put in with the sole goal of this, to see it pay off for them - I can't even describe how that feels. They worked so hard, put so much blood, sweat and tears and true mahi into it. He really clutched up in the end and he got it. I genuinely don't think anyone deserves it more."

Birk Ruud of Norway earned the gold medal after an impeccable first run. Alex Hall, the gold medallist four years ago in Beijing, won silver under cloudy skies on the slopes in the mountain town of Livigno to extend Team USA's remarkable run in the event over the years.

The slopestyle event features skiers who slide across rails and perform aerial tricks to impress the judges with difficulty and originality. The best score from each skier's three runs determines the rankings. Ruud's superb first run put him at the top of the leaderboard from the start. Hall tried to catch him but fell backward after coming off a rail in his third run.

Final scores came in at 86.28 for Ruud, 85.75 for Hall and 85.15 for Harrington. Ruud, 25, pumped his fists and hugged the other medallists as he took the podium. Hall, 27, clapped his hands and smiled. Team USA have earned a slopestyle medal in every Olympics since the event was introduced to the schedule in 2014. Jesper Tjader, the bronze medallist in Beijing, was in medal contention going into his third run of the day but crash-landed off a rail, sending one of his skies flying.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott earlier claimed New Zealand's first medal of the games, taking silver in the Big Air event on Tuesday.

It was a record third medal in the event for Sadowski-Synott, who took silver in Beijing in 2022 and bronze in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Like Harrington, she was also honoured by her teammates with a haka following her win.