Eileen Gu crashes badly in training, misses Winter X

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Olympic freestyle skiing champion Eileen Gu crashed during training for the Winter X Games and said she suffered from bad ligament strain in her knee that forced her to miss the contest.

Gu, who won two golds and a silver at the Beijing Games last year, posted on social media that she “had a serious accident” during practice on Friday, and that the MRI results showed “a bad MCL sprain, ACL strain and bone bruise.

Gu, who won twice in Canada last week and hasn’t lost a halfpipe contest since the start of 2021, watched Saturday night’s action from the crowd. Zoe Atkin of England won the gold medal. Gu was also expected to compete in slopestyle on Sunday, but he won’t either.

Gu, 19, who grew up in the United States but competes for her mother’s homeland of China, became the first action sports athlete to win three medals at the Olympics. Last year, in the mountains outside Beijing, she won gold in slopestyle and halfpipe and silver in big air.

The San Francisco native is currently taking classes at Stanford for her freshman year. She also works as a model and Forbes recently ranked her third on its list of highest paid female athletes for 2022.

Other winners on Saturday night included Gaon Choi of South Korea, 14, who broke Chloe Kim’s record to become the youngest athlete to win the Winter X title in halfpipe snowboarding.

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