“You can kind of hear it in my voice. I sound a little questionable,” Eileen Gu remarked during the X Games livestream on YouTube earlier this year. She spoke of a lingering fever, sleepless nights, and the toll of competing through illness, before admitting, “It’s time to take my mental health, take my physical health, prioritize it, and come back stronger next year.” Her words, delivered after withdrawing from events in Aspen, gave the skiing world a candid glimpse of an athlete who has been repeatedly interrupted by crashes, bruises, and long recoveries.

The Aspen withdrawal was not her first. In 2023, she endured a brutal training crash that left her with an MCL strain, ACL strain, and a bone bruise, forcing her to exit the Winter X Games. The disappointment among spectators

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