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.
“Honestly this event was all about fun for me, I wanted to come out here and ski because it’s fun for me and I wanted to do it. That was the goal and I had a great time tonight,” Gu said.
“I’ve been calling my mum and my coach on the chairlift, I have some amazing friends here to support me, so we made it work.”
It is now three wins from three half-pipe competitions this season for Gu, who is shaping up as a favourite ahead of the Winter Games in February. Earlier this month she won the US Grand Prix and Dew Tour contests at Copper Mountain and finished second in slopestyle to make clear she is the freestyle skier to beat in Beijing.
Gu, born in San Francisco to an American father and Chinese mother, will compete for China at the 2022 Winter Games and is eyeing medals in big air, slopestyle and half-pipe. If the past year is anything to go by, her medal haul should be considerable.
