Gu soars to Olympic glory
Teen prodigy’s dazzling maneuvers in Big Air skiing event help China win third 2022 gold
With the world hailing the arrival of a new sports superstar, China’s freeski Olympic champion Gu Ailing wants to remain the girl next door to inspire more youngsters to push their own boundaries.
Carrying the host nation’s biggest medal hope on the snow, Gu, a versatile skier competing in three events at the Beijing Winter Olympics, delivered big time on Feb 8. The 18-yearold won the freestyle skiing big air event’s Olympic debut with dazzling maneuvers.
Gu was pushed hard by silver medalist Tess Ledeux of France, who finished the first two runs on top. On her third and final run, Gu gambled on a trick she had never done in competition before — a left double cork 1620 jump that involves four and a half spins while rotating two times off-axis in the air.
To a rousing reaction from the small crowd, Gu landed the maneuver to take the gold with a winning total of 188.25 points, which included 93.75 from her first run after she landed a double cork 1440. Competitors do three runs and only the two best scores count toward the final total.
Ledeux had a chance to win the gold, but failed to nail her final run. She had to settle for the silver, while Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland took the bronze.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, but to put it down (the double cork jump) for the first time on my third run in the first Olympic freeski (big air) final
in history means the world to me,” Gu said after her victory.
“My mom called me asking me to play (it) safe before the third run as I’d secured a medal. But I didn’t listen to her and gave it a go, not trying to beat anyone but to elevate myself to the next level.”
Ledeux, the 2019 world champion in the event, slumped to the snow in tears after missing out on the gold, but was gracious in her praise of Gu, despite her own disappointment.
“She works very hard,” 20-year-old Ledeux said of Gu. “There is a very good ... (atmosphere) in freestyle skiing in general. She is very focused on
her job, and she is an amazing athlete.”
Gu’s victory at the Big Air Shougang venue in western Beijing was China’s third gold medal of the Games, following wins in two short-track speed skating events; the mixed team relay and the men’s 1,000-meters.
After her golden start, Gu, a twotime world champion, will contest the halfpipe and slopestyle events at the Genting Snow Park in the co-host city, Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, starting Feb 13.
If she succeeds in her multievent campaign, she will be recognized as the most versatile freestyle skier at
a Winter Olympics and drive China’s burgeoning winter sports market.
Gu was born in the United States to a Chinese mother and US father. When she announced in June 2019 that she would represent China at the Beijing Winter Olympics, she was subjected to criticism and unfair comments on social media in the US that her decision was driven by commercial benefits from the host nation.
Gu said at a news conference on Feb 8 that she was not trying to make anyone happy when she was questioned on the criticism she had faced following her decision to represent
China. “I know that my reasons for making the decisions I do are based on a greater common interest and something that I feel is for the greater good,” she said.
“And so if other people don’t really believe that’s where I’m coming from, then that looks like they do not have the empathy to empathize with a good heart perhaps because they don’t share the same kind of morals that I do.”
Despite her newfound fame, Gu insisted that she will continue living her life like any other teenager.
She said she wanted to send a message to young people, especially girls interested in winter sports, to “just go for it and try to push the boundaries as much as they can.”
Gu has pushed boundaries her entire life. She took to the slopes of Northstar in Tahoe, California, at age 8.
Today, Gu is an Olympic champion, an incoming Stanford University student, part-time fashion model and an accomplished piano player.
She is also on track to become a bright sports star in the world’s most populous nation, which she visits during summer vacations. She is called the “Snow Princess” by her 3.4 million followers on Weibo.
Gu prides herself on understanding the two cultures she straddles, and her affinity with China is strengthened by her family’s ties with Beijing.
“You can see from the top of the Big Air course there is a tower, and I can also see it from my house in Beijing as well. So I really felt like there was a sense of coming home competing at the Games,” she said.