Gu Ailing suffers injury in 'man-made' accident during practice in New Zealand

Chinese Olympic champion freestyle skier Gu Ailing suffered an injury in a "man-made" accident during practice on Friday, the 21-year-old posted on Sina Weibo on Saturday.

Gu was haunted by injuries during the 2024-25 season and had to withdraw from the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province in February as a result. It took her months to recover before starting to train again on snow in New Zealand.

Gu described the accident as "very horrible" and revealed that she went to Christchurch for diagnostic imaging. "Hopefully I can go back to train on snow soon, but we are still waiting for final confirmation from experts," she wrote.

Gu also noted how important it is for freeskiers to stay focused during practice and how dangerous it is for them to be interrupted when they start on snow. She hopes that people don't shoot videos of her or take pictures of her when she is training.

Gu won the halfpipe and big air gold medals for China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and has two World Championships titles to her name.