Chinese superstar Eileen Gu has survived a scare to qualify for the women's slopestyle final, chasing her first gold medal in the event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The 22-year-old, who won slopestyle silver in Beijing along with gold medals in both the big air and halfpipe, had an uncharacteristically poor start to the event at Livigno's Snow Park on Saturday.
Gu fell after her first slide down a rail in the opening run and scored just 1.26 from the judges.
That put her under intense pressure, with the top 12 competitors progressing to Monday's final based on the better of their two runs.
She bounced back in her second run, scoring 75.30 to climb into second place on the leaderboard.
Reigning Olympic and world champion Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud led qualifying.
America-born Gu said her fall came after she tried a new trick for the first time in competition.
"It's my first time actually doing a switch, right trick on a rail in a contest ever," she said.
"I learned that trick, like two weeks ago, when I was in Laax (Switzerland), right after the World Cup, and since I learned it, I've been feeling pretty good and I've actually never fallen on it.
"I watched the video, and it looked like I just came off.
"There was just this moment's hesitation, uncertainty ... I kind of just needed to knock some sense into myself, be like, remember who you are. Get it together. And I'm glad that I got it together."
While Gu recovered, there was no such luck for Sarah Hofflin as the Swiss 2018 Olympic champion went out in 13th place after losing a ski during her first-round routine.
Australia's Daisy Thomas was forced to withdraw from the event after crashing during training in Livigno but was hopeful of recovering to compete in the big air.
