Winter Olympics: golden girl Eileen Gu soars as figure skating pair Han Cong and Sui Wenjing set world record
- The 18-year-old is the first athlete to win medals in three different freestyle skiing disciplines after her big air gold and slopestyle silver
- Han and Sui put on another world record effort in the short programme after their performance in the team event last week
Eileen Gu was primed to be China’s golden girl at Beijing 2022 and she played her part to the full on Friday. If the 18-year-old wasn’t a global superstar who transcends sport before the Games, she most certainly is now after winning a second gold medal on her Winter Olympics debut.
Even before the competition was over, Gu had gold in the bag in the women’s freeski half-pipe, with no athlete able to challenge her stellar 95.5 in the second run at the Genting Snow Park.
While the rest of the world squabbled about whether the San Francisco-born part-time model was American or China, Gu simply went about her business, saying she felt “a deep-seated sense of gratitude” after completing her Olympics campaign with two golds and a silver – the first woman to win medals in three different freeski disciplines.
“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.
Gu previously won gold in the women’s big air and silver in the slopestyle, helping to take China’s overall gold tally to eight – surpassing expectations. China have 14 medals overall with four silvers and two bronze.