The Tamesis
Eileen Gu, 22, stares intently into the dazzling void from atop a mountain before her final competition in the women’s freestyle big air final in Milano Cortina. In the simplest terms, her task is this: she needs to do well to win a medal, and she needs to do well to win a gold medal. She fell in.
Without saying a word, Gu performed a left double cork 1260—a space-cutting movement, as sharp as a dragonfly, that she had only learned a week ago—reaching back to grab the outside of the right ski and rotating it deeply. She flies through the air and lands backwards with the ultra-clean, efficient athleticism she’s known for. Then she excitedly shouted, “What?!”
Gu waited patiently for her score: 89.00. The number pushed her into silver medal position and she celebrated enthusiastically. She hasn’t competed in the event since Beijing four years ago, when she won the gold medal at just 18. At the end of the game, Gu hugged a large crowd of fans, including her mother Yan, Canadian gold medalist Megan Oldham and even former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, who was cheering her on from the stands.
Photo: Getty Images
When we spoke a few days before the Olympics, Gu told me: “The only thing I can hope for for this Olympics is to get a landing score that I’m proud of.”
Gu was born in San Francisco, but her mother is from China, where she competes and she is a five-time freestyle skiing medalist. This statistic makes her the most decorated woman in the history of the discipline. In addition to the Beijing big air gold, she also won halfpipe gold and slopestyle silver in China. In Italy, she won a silver medal in slopestyle.
One might think Gu would be less nervous entering Milan Cortina given his results in Beijing. This may be true to an extent, but she spoke to me with such confidence and clarity that I wondered if she once Get nervous.
Photo: Lorenz Richard/Red Bull
