Lee Seung-hoon Withdraws from Olympic Final Due to Injury

Lee Seung-hoon (Korea National Sport University), who became the first Korean to reach the Winter Olympics freestyle skiing halfpipe final but was forced to withdraw due to an unexpected injury, shared his disappointment through social media.

On January 20 (local time), Lee scored 76 points in the men's halfpipe qualification at Livigno Snowpark in Italy during the 2026 Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics, finishing 10th among 25 athletes to advance to the 12-man final.

However, Lee suffered a setback when he struck his right knee against the pipe wall during practice before the final.

After skipping the first run of the final, Lee considered competing in the second and third runs but ultimately withdrew when his condition failed to improve.

Lee has been Korea's leading athlete in freestyle skiing halfpipe. After inline skating until fourth grade, he began skiing that winter and developed rapidly. Just two months after switching sports, he was selected for the Korea Ski Association's youth development program. Six years later in 2021, he won a silver medal at the FIS Junior World Championships—Korea's best-ever result—proving his international competitiveness. Despite elimination in the 2022 Beijing Olympics qualification round, he won bronze at the Calgary World Cup in February 2024 and captured Korea's first-ever freestyle skiing gold at the Harbin Asian Games last year, establishing himself among the world's elite.

At this Olympics, his advancement to the final raised medal hopes, but an unexpected injury ended his dream.

After the competition, Lee shared his feelings on social media.

"Everything is finished now. I'm grateful to everyone who waited for and cheered for my final run," he wrote.

"From that morning, I was fighting fever and body aches, and I started final practice with a right shoulder injury from the qualification round," he continued. "During practice, I had a landing mistake and hurt my knee, and had to be carried off. I went back up to at least attempt the third run, but the injury was more serious than expected, so I decided to go to the hospital."

Hospital examination revealed a torn anterior cruciate ligament, lateral cartilage damage, and lateral bone contusion.

"When I fell and knew something was wrong, I didn't want to give up on the Olympic final I had dreamed of," he wrote. "I wanted to show everything I had. I prepared for the Olympics with everything I had so I wouldn't have regrets, and I wanted to compete without regrets."

"It was hard to accept that I had to let go of my first final appearance due to this unfortunate incident," he added. "Because of everyone who supported me, I was able to stand at my second Olympics and earn another 'first' title."

Finally, Lee expressed hope for future competitions. "Congratulations to (Choi) Ga-on, who has done so much to promote halfpipe, on your gold medal! I will recover strong," he wrote.