{"id":243343,"date":"2026-01-17T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243343\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T16:35:08","slug":"eileen-gu-and-birk-ruud-win-slopestyle-world-cup-freeski-events-in-laax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/243343\/","title":{"rendered":"Eileen Gu and Birk Ruud win slopestyle World Cup freeski events in Laax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eileen Gu<\/a> and Birk Ruud<\/a> claimed victories in the women\u2019s and men\u2019s freestyle skiing<\/a> slopestyle finals at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in Laax, Switzerland, on Saturday, 17 January, closing out the third slopestyle event of the 2025\u201326 season ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n

Gu, the reigning Olympic big air champion and\u00a0slopestyle silver medallist, struck early in the women’s event. The skier from the People\u2019s Republic of China locked up the win with her opening run, which stood as the top score of the final, before crashing on her second attempt while pushing for more, already safe in the knowledge that she would win.<\/p>\n

Mairn Hamill<\/a> of the United States finished second, with Austria\u2019s Lara Wolf<\/a> completing the podium.<\/p>\n

After the competition, an\u00a0interviewer informed Gu that the victory marked the 20th World Cup win of her career, making her the first freestyle skier in history to reach the milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even think of that,\u201d Gu said with a wide smile. \u201cIt\u2019s my twentieth win, that\u2019s so special. First of all, I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been that many, and secondly, each one gets harder. People sometimes take it for granted, but with every win, it becomes exponentially more difficult. I\u2019m really proud of the consistency I\u2019ve shown.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really like taking victory laps,” she added of the crash on her second run. “I just wanted to do something to keep pushing and show my best out here. But that\u2019s the sport, sometimes you fall.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s final, Norway’s reigning freeski world champion\u00a0Ruud secured the first-place position for the third year in a row at Laax, describing the moment as both emotional and freeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to ski this beautiful course and just flow through it, to be fully in the moment and feel free as a bird, that\u2019s one of the best feelings in the world,\u201d Ruud said. \u201cSkiing is a sport where I can truly be present, and that makes days like this very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruud also spoke openly about the emotions he carried into the final.\u00a0\u201cI was a little sad yesterday and today for some reason, and that\u2019s OK,\u201d he said. \u201cIt means you can also be happy. Landing that first run today was a great relief, and now I feel really present in this moment. I\u2019m super hyped and very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was joined by Austria’s Matej Svancer<\/a> in second and Canada’s Evan McEachran<\/a> in third.<\/p>\n

The Laax Open, held from 15\u201317 January, marked the final opportunity to earn points towards qualification ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>, adding extra pressure on the iconic Swiss event.<\/p>\n

Freestyle skiing slopestyle will be contested at Milano Cortina 2026 at the Livigno Snow Park from 7\u20139 February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eileen Gu and Birk Ruud claimed victories in the women\u2019s and men\u2019s freestyle skiing slopestyle finals at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-243343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}