Star winter athlete makes history
Teen ski sensation bags two golds in single championship despite injuries, stormy weather
Chinese freeskier Gu Ailing soared to yet more historymaking feats over the weekend, further enhancing expectations that the teenager will be a superstar of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Just over a month after winning China’s first X Games gold medals in Aspen, Colorado, the 17-year-old bagged another sensational double at the FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships at the same location.
This time, the teenager had to overcome stormy conditions on Buttermilk Mountain to become the first freeskier ever to win two golds at the same world championships — halfpipe on March 12 followed by slopestyle the next day.
Her achievements were all the more remarkable considering she entered the championships nursing hand injuries.
Those injuries meant Gu opted against using poles, but amazingly she still managed to pull off a dazzling array of flips and tricks.
“I feel so so good. I broke my hand a few weeks ago, I have torn UCL (ulnar collateral) ligament (located in the thumb) and a broken pointer finger so this is my first time ever competing without poles,” Gu told the FIS website after her halfpipe victory.
“I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d feel with that. I definitely was really struggling on qualifying day and during training before that, so it shook up my confidence a little bit. But dropping in today I was really feeling it. It’s so amazing. I’m really excited to come back and show the world I can ski well even with this.”
Gu avoided the worst of the storm during her title-clinching first run on March 13, but the wind still added an extra layer of difficulty to her routines.
“It is absolutely blown right now. It was super windy today,” Gu said of the weather on March 13. “A lot of girls had to push through really tough conditions. Big shout out to everybody out there.
“Me personally, I took a biggish fall during training and shook up my confidence a little bit and wasn’t sure how good I was going to feel during the contest.
“To come back and be able to land my full run makes me really proud of myself, to be able to push through that pressure and self-doubt.”
Speaking of her versatility, Gu told The Aspen Times after her triumph on March 13: “I had low expectations, but again exceeded them and I’m super happy.
“It feels absolutely insane to me. Being able to ski every event or being able to be a well-rounded skier has always been really important. I don’t really want to think of myself as a halfpipe skier or slopestyle skier. I just want to be a skier.”
After leading in the March 11 slopestyle qualification, Gu threw down the gauntlet on March 13 by scoring 84.23 points in her stunning first run, leading her closest rival by almost 10 points.
A failed double 1080 attempt resulted in a 40.65 score in her second run, but her first routine could not be bettered and history was made. Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud finished second (77.15), and Canada’s Megan Oldham (76.18) took third.
Just 24 hours earlier, Gu had claimed China’s first-ever gold at the biennial freeski worlds.
After finishing seventh in the March 10 qualification, Gu posted a leading score of 93.00 points in her first run, which also proved to be unassailable. Gu still maintained a high level in her next runs, with scores of 92.50 and 89.00.
Canada’s Rachael Karker was second (91.75), with Britain’s Zoe Atkin (90.50) third.
Gu was born and raised in San Francisco, California, but announced in 2019 that she would compete for China, her mother’s native country.
The grade-A, Stanford-bound student has previously spoken of her deep connection with her Chinese roots.
“I was raised bilingual, and spent every summer in Beijing, so I know Chinese culture and American culture as well. So I have that dual identity, where together two halves make a whole for me,” Gu said after her double gold at the X-Games, where she also picked up a bronze medal.
She has said her decision to compete for China was also partly influenced by the country’s plan to attract 300 million people to ice and snow sports in the buildup to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. She hopes to “use sports as a bridge” between the United States and China.
First and foremost, though, Team China will hope Gu can reign on the slopes surrounding Beijing at next year’s Winter Olympics.
Topping the podium at Beijing 2022, however, is likely to prove more difficult than at the Aspen games, where two of Gu’s major rivals — Canada’s Cassie Sharpe and Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru — were absent due to injuries.
It seems certain that whatever the outcome at next year’s Olympics, the highly marketable Gu — who is also a fashion model and accomplished long-distance runner and basketball player — will be one of the main attractions for both global and domestic audiences.