In a major blow for hosts China, three-time Winter Olympic medalist Eilen Gu has withdrawn from Harbin 2025, the 9th Asian Winter Games, citing injury.
The double Winter Olympic gold medalist was supposed to participate in three events: freestyle skiing halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air.
“After getting injured at the X Games Aspen, I unfortunately sustained another injury during training for participating in the upcoming World Cup. Today, I had to withdraw from the highly-anticipated Asian Winter Games Harbin with a heavy heart.”
“I wish the Chinese athletes the best results,” Gu said in her Weibo account. “I will also actively cooperate with my doctors for rehabilitation and strive to return to the competition as soon as possible this season.”
The 31-year-old suffered an injury from a fall during the street style competition on January 25 at the X Games Aspen 2025 in the US.
Later, opting out of the ski halfpipe and ski big air events, stating, “I’m okay but unable to walk at this point in time due to some really aggressive bruising on that last crash.”
“To be completely honest, my mental and physical tanks hit zero yesterday. I was planning on pulling out two nights ago but challenged myself to get through the practices and to stay in the contests for the love of the game and as a mental strength exercise.”
In 2024, her lone success came at the Winter X Games where she clinched the gold in the Superpipe event.