Eileen Gu mid-air at the Laax Open. | Image: Laax Open
Chinese-American Eileen Gu showed that she is still one of the most dominant freeski athletes in the world, capturing her second consecutive Laax Open slopestyle title on Saturday, January 17, while shaking off a frightening crash that, thankfully, looked much worse than it was. The two-time Olympic champion had already locked up victory with her first run. Nevertheless, she went all out on her second run, attempting a double cork 1080 and came up short, tumbling hard onto her right side with a ski and poles flying—a fall that sent a shiver through the crowd before she skied out and waved to fans at the finish.
Gu sealed victory with a blistering first run score of 85.13, standing atop the podium again ahead of American Marin Hamill, who scored 71.38 for second, and Austria’s Lara Wolf in third with 67.85. For those left wondering why the dual citizen would risk all when she had held the victory in hand, the athlete had the following explanation: “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 okay.” Her win also marked her 20th World Cup victory, becoming the first freeski athlete to claim 20 victories in the Freeski Park & Win category. She keeps beating her own record since becoming the winningest athlete two years ago.
Eileen Gu became the first freeski athlete, male or female, to claim 20 victories. | Image: FIS Freestyle
In the men’s slopestyle final, Birk Ruud of Norway continued his mastery of the Laax course, claiming his third consecutive Laax Open victory with a technically clean first run that edged out Austria’s Matěj Švancer by a single point. Canada’s Evan McEachran rounded out the podium in third. Ruud’s run highlighted his all-around trick repertoire—including a Switch Left Double Cork 1620 Blunt—earning him 85.08 points and extending his Laax legacy. Švancer impressively came second after having everyone hold their breath when the Austrian skier lost a ski mid-air. Švancer scored an impressive 84.08, while McEachran was not far behind with a score of 82.70.
The Laax Open served not just as another World Cup stop but as one of the final major tests before the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, with both Gu and Ruud sending strong messages to their rivals less than three weeks before the Games begin. Gu enters the Olympics as a favorite in slopestyle — the one freeski discipline where she narrowly missed Olympic gold at Beijing 2022.
But American skiers also made their presence felt as well, with Marin Hamill’s second-place finish—her second career World Cup podium—and teammate Avery Krumme’s fourth place. On the men’s side, Hunter Henderson placed a strong fifth with 80.50 points while Konnor Ralph finished eighth with 76.45 points.
As the freestyle season pauses for the Olympic break, the results from Laax provide a final glimpse at form and confidence. Between Gu’s record-setting victory and Ruud’s continued dominance, both champions head into February with momentum on their side.