MILAN -- While spending most of the year 2025 rehabbing multiple injuries, snowboarder Yu Seung-eun kept wondering why she even picked up the sport in the first place.
After all, she was essentially forced into snowboard when her mother signed her up for a camp while she was in elementary school. Up until then, Yu had been playing table tennis, with an eye on developing into a more competitive junior player.
Now in 2026, Yu has a much different perspective on her early career switch.
On Feb. 9, Yu won the bronze medal in the women's big air at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, reaching such dizzying heights in a sport that she didn't think she was very good at.
"Now that I am here, I am glad I made that switch to snowboarding," Yu said at a press conference for South Korean journalists in Milan on Friday. The 18-year-old had spent her Olympics in Livigno, some 140 kilometers north of Milan, while competing in the big air and then the slopestyle event.
"But throughout 2025, it was just a series of thoughts, like, 'I shouldn't have picked up snowboarding,'" Yu said. "I didn't really have a say when my mom put me in that camp. I was so young back then."
Starting in late 2024, Yu suffered a broken ankle, a dislocated elbow and a fractured wrist -- a string of injuries that would have derailed any career. But Yu said she stuck with it, with plenty of help from others.
"Although I was in a dark place at the moment, I believed there would be light at the end of the tunnel and the sun will rise again," Yu said. "I wouldn't have made it here alone. I want to thank everyone who has helped me and encouraged me along the way."
And as much as she was tempted to quit, Yu still maintained her love of snowboard.
"I feel this incredible sense of exhilaration when I pull off a trick," Yu said with a smile. "And I've had so many people tell me they think snowboard is so cool. Making people happy is what makes this sport so great."
Given her tender age, Yu likely has multiple Olympic Games left in her. She admitted she hadn't yet had a chance to think about anything beyond this year's Olympics, and her immediate goal is to keep getting better.
Specifically, Yu said she wants to be as good in the slopestyle as she is in the big air. Following her big air bronze, Yu finished in 12th place -- last in the final -- in the slopestyle earlier this week.
In the big air, boarders drop into the ramp and launch off one big jump to perform flips and spins. In the slopestyle, boarders perform a series of tricks coming down a course featuring obstacles such as rails and jumps.
Many high-level boarders compete in both events. This year, Kokomo Murase of Japan won the big air gold and then the slopestyle bronze. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand won silver medals in both events.
"With long injury rehabs, I only had time to train for the big air before the Olympics," Yu said. "I only did a little bit of slopestyle training in Italy about a month before the Olympics, and I was lucky to finish where I did, considering the circumstances. I will try to be a boarder who is good at both. I realized here how hard I have to work in the slopestyle."
A few days after Yu's breakthrough, her snowboarding friend, Choi Gaon, soared to the gold medal in the women's halfpipe in Livigno. Yu said she was inspired by the way Choi bounced back from a serious fall early in the final to capture the emotionally charged gold medal.
"I respect her so much as an athlete. She is such a talented snowboarder," Yu said. "I am not on her level. But I am a hard-working athlete, and that's how I want to be remembered."
But first things first: Yu has been in Italy for nearly the entire month of February. She arrived here on Jan. 30 to prepare for the big air, and the slopestyle final ended Wednesday. Her flight back home is later Friday.
"I was the first Korean snowboarder to get here, and I will be the last one to leave," Yu said with a smile. "Before I came, I figured I'd be able to enjoy the Olympics to the fullest. But I've been here too long. I just want to go home as soon as possible." (Yonhap)
