Kiwi snowboarder Cool Wakushima has been forced to withdraw from the women's big air event at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The 19-year-old hasn't recovered from the tailbone injury which cut her run at the slopestyle event short and will not compete alongside teammate Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in Monday's qualifiers.
A "shocked and upset" Wakushima said she re-aggravated the injury during training and had to make the difficult decision to pull out to prevent doing long-term damage.
"After a couple days of resting from my initial injury, my body was feeling way better doing day to day activities and honestly I thought I was going to be fine," Wakushima wrote in an Instagram post.
"But on the first day of big air practice, I rode into the jump, did a straight air and everything felt right until the landing. I rode away in intense pain and found out I'm not able to handle any more large impacts as it could lead to further damage.
"Still a little shocked and upset but at the same time have learnt so much from this experience and I am so grateful for all the love that has been sent my way."
Wakushima's withdrawal leaves Sadowski-Synnott as the lone Kiwi in Monday's event, where she'll start as the favourite to add a second gold medal to her haul, after topping the podium in the slopestyle.
The big air final will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Join Newshub for live updates of Kiwi Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in the women's big air qualifiers at 2:30pm (NZ time)