Eileen Gu breaks record with second gold
The freeski competitor, Eileen Gu, won gold in the halfpipe competition on Friday, becoming the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Games.
At the halfpipe competition on Friday, China’s freeski superstar Eileen Gu won her second gold of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games at Zhangjiakou's Genting Snow Park.
Triple medals, nearly triple gold
Gu's first gold came at the big air event and she was just a fraction of a point away from gold when she won the silver in Tuesday’s slopestyle competition. She may have missed the triple gold, but she still made history as the first ever action-sports athlete to win three medals at a single Olympic Games.
While her other two events were close calls, the halfpipe event was a different story. Gu dominated from the very start, setting a target of 93.25 with her opening run, spinning off the walls of the halfpipe in 900s, 360s, and alley-loop 540s right off the bat. She put herself even further in the lead on her second descent with a 92.25. In the end, she won the gold by a landslide.
Gu’s choice to compete for China
Eileen Gu was born and raised in California, but in 2019 she chose to compete for China rather than the U.S. In China, she’s known as Gu Ailing. She has now won more medals for China than anyone else at the Beijing Winter Olympics. China and the U.S. are tied for golds (eight) in the 2022 Olympics thanks to Gu’s newest gold in the halfpipe.
Though she chose to compete for China, Gu reiterates that she’s both American and Chinese and that “it’s bout about nationality”.
"One thing I love so much about freeskiing is this camaraderie and this spirit of support in which it's not about what country you're skiing for - it's about our shared passion for the sport and this unique ability for this extreme sport to unite people, because we're not here to break limits for a country, we're here to break the human limit," Gu said.