Henrik Harlaut has been perhaps the most consistently successful competition skier over the past three years. Over which period he has also been one of the most prodigious film skiers, even competing in X Games Real Ski. In a scary announcement for every other skier on the planet, he revealed today in an Instagram post that he has, in fact, done all of that while injured. The full story is split between his original Instagram post and his comments, so here it is in one place for ease of following. He also had a haircut and failed to mention that he has started his own brand, Harlaut Apparel, which you can find out all about here. If for some reason you don't follow Henrik, his original post can be found here.

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"Back in 2016, the first practice day at the B&E Invitational I took a bit too much speed for one of the spines and landed flat. Landed perfect and rode out but felt that something happened in my left knee. Didn’t feel like it was too serious, more like a bone bruise or just a hard hit on my meniscus (that I had 2 surgeries on in past). Kept skiing with some pain but it didn’t bother me that much. Got it check out at the end of the season by physios and my knee was still stable and strong so they suggested to let it rest over the summer and hope that it was just a bone bruise so it will be healed by the time of the next season start. ⁣

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Started skiing again and felt like it had gotten a bit better over the summer, not pain free but better. Went to Chile for a World Cup and ended up grabbing 1st place so that boosted my confidence and decided to not do anything before the season really started. Ended up winning another World Cup, dew tour, xgames big air, the overall WC crystal globe, silver Xgames realski and secure my Olympic spot that season. After that I went out in the backcountry and filmed for some time but unfortunately had a pretty bad crash one of my last days. Went back to Andorra where I started seeing a physiotherapist 5 days a week and did some MRI’s but it still didn’t seem like the best idea to go into surgery yet because of my wanting to go to the Olympics the coming season.⁣

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So instead I got a list of antioxidant products to minimize the swelling and pain, so I went all in and fully changed my diet and way of training. Felt AMAZING! Then I entered one of the biggest seasons yet and it almost went as good as it could have. 1st dew tour, 1st Xgames big air, 1st Xgames slope style, 1st Slvsh cup and 16th at olympics.⁣

Got a lot of negative criticism from Swedish media but knew even though I had “failed” at olympics my skiing was better than ever so to block that out I went out and hiked/filmed in the mountains of Andorra for three months straight (built 35 different kicker/qp/hips) to finish off my movie “The Regiment”. ⁣

Then went to LA to meet up with my friends at @steptstudios, they helped me put together the movie while I was able to get some time to reflect and re change the batteries again.⁣

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After I went down to @jossiwells invitational and ended up winning “best overall skier” but felt that the damage in my knee started to get more serious. So I decided to push thru one more season since it was already pretty late to go into surgery. Decided that I was gonna go hard but not push it beyond and listen to my knee better and that after @kimbosessions take the time, get the surgery and get it fixed. Told my friends and sponsors my plan to manifest my words, I knew otherwise I would just keep pushing it.⁣

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Thankfully everything went pretty much according to plan, ended up winning my for WC slopestyle event, 3rd dew tour, 2nd World championship, participated in Xgames Realski and one of my most successful filming seasons yet. New movie will release 10/10/2020. Most of all I had soooo much fun on so many new levels that I hadn’t experienced before with so many amazing people I hadn’t had the chance to share with in the past.⁣

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Now I’m here, just had surgery this morning which went really good and I’m planning to be back on snow in August again. But first it’s time to enjoy summer and get really really strong!

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Since I think of this as a rebirth to my ski career I decided to cut my hair to start off fresh. Good thing is that it’s hair so the locks might grow back one day. But for right now it feels good after 10 years of dreads!

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So thankful for everyone that has and is supporting me, I can’t tell you how much it has helped me and I will forever be grateful for you LOVE! Thank you." - Henrik Harlaut