California-born Chinese sensation Eileen Gu yesterday said that she felt “a deep-seated sense of gratitude” after winning her second gold of the Winter Olympics and third medal overall in the freestyle skiing halfpipe.
The 18-year-old set the seal on a hugely successful Games with another commanding performance, clinching the title before she had even started her third and final run.
Gu switched from representing the US to China in 2019 and said that winning her third medal felt like a “coming-together moment.”
Photo: AFP
“The overriding emotion is this deep-seated sense of gratitude and resolution — this all coming together, years and years in the making,” she said, wearing a panda hat after the victory ceremony. “It’s like letting out a deep breath.”
Gu became the first athlete to win three Olympic medals in three different freestyle skiing disciplines, after claiming gold in big air and silver in slopestyle.
She was hotly tipped to add the halfpipe title after topping Thursday’s qualifying and she wasted no time in laying down a marker in the final with a first-run score of 93.25.
That put her in first place and she raised the bar further on her second run, scoring 95.25 to put the title within her reach.
Her victory was confirmed while she waited at the top of the halfpipe for her final run and she spent several moments hugging her coaches before making her way down with a relaxed and joyous victory lap.
“I was very emotional at the top and I chose to do a victory lap because I felt like for the first time I really deserved it and I really earned it,” she said. “It was a great punctuation on this amazing journey up to the Olympics.”
Canada’s Cassie Sharpe took silver on 90.75 points, while another Canadian, Rachael Karker, claimed bronze on 87.75.
However, all eyes were on the magnetic Gu, who has become the face of the Beijing Games over the past two weeks.
She joked on Thursday that her grandmother, who had never seen her compete, would be “unfazed and unimpressed” by the massive attention when she arrived to watch yesterday’s final.
Gu has become a sporting icon in China and said she has received “hundreds of messages” from young girls who have been inspired to take up skiing because of her.
Gu admitted that the pressure “started to catch up” with her before yesterday’s final, but she said it was “immensely rewarding” to have an impact off the slope as well as on it.
“I’m still trying to figure out my own life — the fact that I’ve been able to create some kind of positive change already has exceeded my expectations,” she said.
Gu refused to say whether she would attempt to defend her Olympic titles in Italy in four years’ time.
She is preparing to start studying at Stanford University later this year and said she had “no idea” whether she would continue to compete in freestyle skiing.
In the meantime, Gu said that her immediate plan was to eat lamb hot pot with her mother and grandmother.
“From the opening ceremony to today I was skiing every single day, so I’m really tired, but I feel at peace, I feel grateful, I feel passionate and I feel proud,” she said.
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