Australian snowboarding sensation Valentino Guseli has revealed he’ll spend an prolonged time frame on the sidelines after injuring his anterior essential ligament (ACL).
The 19-year-old fell throughout qualifying for the FIS World Cup snowboard large air occasion on the Shougang Massive Air in Beijing earlier this month.
Guseli felt he had tweaked his knee within the fall, however scans have revealed an ACL harm.
“ACL gone,” he wrote in an Instagram publish.
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“Seeyas in a bit.”
The harm takes Guseli out of motion simply over a yr out from the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, the place he had hoped to qualify in all three snowboard disciplines: half-pipe, slopestyle and large air.
In February 2023, he grew to become the primary male snowboarder to win World Cup medals in all three park and pipe disciplines in the identical season.
Guseli, who made his Olympic debut as a 16-year-old in Beijing the place he competed within the half pipe, has received three crystal globes as World Cup collection winner.
Assuming he heals efficiently, the harm is not going to rule him out of the 2026 Olympics.
He might take inspiration from fellow Beijing Olympian Tess Coady, who recovered from her personal ACL harm on the 2018 Video games to win an impressive bronze within the slopestyle 4 years later, when she additionally competed within the large air.
Coady was one of many first of many to ship assist publicly to Guseli, replying with “Heal up fast!!” on his publish.
There was extra optimistic information in China for Guseli’s teammate from Beijing, Scotty James, who pulled out a surprising efficiency along with his third run to win World Cup silver on the half-pipe at Secret Backyard in Zhangjiakou.
Sitting tenth heading into the ultimate run, the two-time Olympic medallist produced a chic technical run to leap into second place.
The run, scoring 88.25, was not sufficient to overtake Japanese rider Yuto Totsuka, who received with a rating of 95.50.
James additionally received silver on this half-pipe on the 2022 Video games.
Ayumu Hirano, who received gold at these Video games, completed in fourth place.