Eileen Gu warms up for Olympics by retaining her Laax ski slopestyle title despite crash

Two-time Olympic champion Eileen Gu shook off a crash and celebrated her second straight slopestyle title at the Laax Open in Switzerland on Saturday.

Gu had already locked up victory before she set out on her second run. She tried a double cork 1080 – that’s two head-over-heels flips – but fell hard on her right side with one ski and her poles flying off after coming up short on a rotation.

After gathering herself on the slope, she skied gently down to the finish and appeared not to be seriously hurt. She smiled and waved to the camera when she stood by second-placed Marin Hamill of the US and third-placed Lara Wolf of Austria.

“I’m OK,” Gu said. “I don’t really like taking a victory lap, so I wanted to just do something to keep pushing and show my best out here. But that’s the sport, sometimes you fall, so it’s OK.”

Slopestyle is the only event where Gu fell short of gold at the Beijing Games four years ago and will enter the Milano Cortina Winter Games next month as the favourite to add it to her Olympic medals collection. She claimed gold in halfpipe and big air, in addition to her silver in slopestyle, in 2022.

The American-born star who competes for China went last in the line-up thanks to her leading qualifying score. She didn’t need to land the second run after nobody surpassed the 85.13 she earned over her flawless opening trip through the course’s rails and jumps.