Industry News
Eileen Gu, the young superstar skier who won a gold medal in Big Air and Halfpipe at the 2022 Olympics Games in Beijing, was forced to withdraw from X Games 2023 with a significant knee injury. The 19-year-old phenom suffered the injury during a practice run before the competition and will miss an extended period while going through rehab.
After an MRI was performed on Gu’s knee, the full extent of the injury was discovered. “Had a heavy crash today in training and was told by doctors that they were worried about my ACL,” Gu communicated via social media. “Had the most agonizing couple hours waiting to get an MRI until I finally got my results back about 30 mins ago. Turns out my knee is intact!! So so lucky to be walking away with a bad MCL sprain, ACL strain, and bone bruise. The bad news is I won’t be competing at X Games this weekend. The last few hours really put everything in perspective and made me realize how important it is to keep my body healthy. I’ll be back soon.”
While this is quite an enormous disappointment for Gu, there is a silver lining. The fact that her ACL remains unscathed is s relief for both her short and long-term career plans. An injury such as an ACL tear can seriously impact the long term prospects of a skiing career, especially for the type of events that Gu competes in. She seems to be taking the injury in stride and moving forward with a positive outlook, which is undoubtedly a good thing to see.
This injury will certainly impact Gu’s competition plans for the rest of the season, but specifics regarding the impact on her schedule for the rest of the year remain unknown. After making her season debut by snagging two halfpipe wins at the World Cup in Calgary in January, X Games 2023 in Aspen was set to be her second competition of the year. She was set to compete at the World Championships in Georgia (the country, not the state) on February 26th, but it is unclear if this setback will change these plans.
