China’s Eileen Gu loses passport, ‘no mum and no coach’, but still wins Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in Calgary
- The freestyle skier caps off an epic year on the snow, strengthening her status as gold medal favourite for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
- The Chinese star overcomes major travel disruptions to win her third straight tournament over Hanna Faulhaber and Rachael Karker
Eileen Gu overcame travel disruptions, including a lost passport, to take her third consecutive half-pipe victory, winning the Freeski Halfpipe World Cup in Calgary.
Gu took a comfortable win over US rival Hanna Faulhaber, while Canadian Rachael Karker took third in the night event. Getting to the winners podium, however, was no easy task for the 18-year-old ski star, who faced a laundry list of issues over the past 24 hours.
“You know 24 hours ago I was in a different country with a lost passport, I had no idea how I was even going to get here,” Gu said in an interview after her half-pipe win.
“I found it at the very last moment, got to my flight, I was the last person on my flight, forgot my phone charger, no mum, no coach – everything was just kind of chaotic.”
Despite the chaos, Gu pulled off a near-flawless performance, locking down a final score of 95.2, ahead of Faulhaber with 92.8. Two other members of the Chinese team Zhang Kexin and Li Fanghui took a solid fourth and fifth place respectively and appear to be rounding into form ahead of their home-country games.