Gu warms up for Olympics by retaining Laax slopestyle crown

LAAX, Switzerland — Two-time Olympic champion Gu Ailing of China shook off a crash and celebrated her second straight slopestyle title at the Laax Open 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, but she will enter the Milano-Cortina Winter Games next month as the favorite 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 lineup 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.

Home favorite Mathilde Gremaud, the Swiss skier who edged Gu for gold in 2022, finished seventh.

At age 22, Gu's win was her record-extending 20th World Cup career victory and her fourth in slopestyle.

"That's so special. First of all, I can't believe it's been that many," she said. "Secondly, I think every one gets harder and I think people sometimes take it for granted."

In the men's slopestyle event, Birk Ruud of Norway won his third straight Laax title.

Freestyle skiing and snowboarding at Milano-Cortina 2026 will be held in Livigno, a three-hour drive northeast of Milan in the Italian Alps. Snowboarding preliminary runs start on Feb 5 with freestyle skiing commencing two days later.

James' eye on Milan gold

Scotty James won his record-extending fifth Laax Open halfpipe title on Saturday with an eye-popping set of tricks that the Australian snowboarder hopes will finally win him the Olympic gold medal next month.

James, a four-time world champion who had to settle for Olympic silver at Beijing 2022 and bronze four years before that, led a south Pacific podium sweep at Laax.

New Zealand's Campbell Melville Ives took second with a pair of triple-flipping jumps in his second run and fellow Aussie Valentino Guseli was third.

The 19-year-old Melville Ives was leading after he wowed the crowd in the Swiss Alps with a thrilling second run. But James, 31, overcame him on the last run that received a near-perfect score of 98.75 points, bettering Melville Ives' haul of 91.

James said their duel and the big jumps performed by other riders in the Laax final bode well for snowboarding at the Milano-Cortina Games. The men's halfpipe in Livigno in the Italian Alps starts on Feb 11.

"I really think that we're probably going to be in for one of the most exciting and thrilling and competitive Olympics, maybe in history, amongst the whole field in the halfpipe," James said.

"It's exciting for me, I hope it's exciting for everyone watching, and I can't wait to go to battle with everyone."

Defending Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano withdrew after he suffered a hard crash on his first run. The Japanese rider's lower face was bloodied when he left the halfpipe course under his own power.

Choi Ga-on of South Korea won her third consecutive women's World Cup halfpipe title also on Saturday in Laax.

Choi, 17, also won the season opener in Secret Garden in China and at Copper Mountain, Colorado, in December.

Rise Kudo of Japan was second and Cai Xuetong of China was third in the Laax final, where two-time Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim was absent due to a shoulder injury.