Eileen Gu is making history!
The 17-year-old Chinese skier snagged the gold medal in the Jeep Women’s Ski Slopestyle competition on Saturday (January 30) at X Games Aspen 2021 — making this her third X Games medal in just 22 hours 😱😱😱
X Games Aspen 2021 Day 3 Recap – January 30, 2021
After winning a bronze medal in Women’s Ski Big Air and a gold medal in Women’s Ski SuperPipe on Friday (January 29), Gu sealed her title as the breakout star of X Games Aspen 2021 (which we predicted) with Saturday’s win. Although the Slopestyle course was a bit slow due to snowfall, Eileen’s best tricks included a switch left lipslide 270 to continuing 270 out, a switch left bio 900 and a huge left alley-oop flatspin 720 mute grab.
(Photo by Matt Morning / ESPN Images)
When talking about her preparation for X Games, the 17-year-old tells Celeb Secrets that despite lockdown orders, she was able to train harder than ever — all while being in school — to achieve her goals and ultimately medal in every discipline this weekend.
“You miss what you don’t have, so if you’re skiing every day, sometimes you could get used to it and get complacent in that position. Once you get it taken away, you realize how much you love the sport and how much you miss it,” Eileen says.
“For me particularly this has been a huge year. I graduated early, so this was my first year being able to ski full time. So given that and the pandemic — I wasn’t able to ski in the beginning — I worked really hard to graduate and I was super excited to ski and wasn’t able to do that. So when I found out that I was able to get back on snow, I was super hungry and motivated. This is absolutely a dream; I think I’ve been working hard these past couple of months and I think that all of my hard work has really paid off.”
(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
While Eileen’s X Games debut may have come to a close, her show-stopping appearances won’t ever go unnoticed. Eileen is only the fourth athlete in X Games history to win three medals at an X Games… EVER. If that wasn’t enough, she is also the first woman and second overall athlete to win two gold medals as a rookie and the first woman to earn three X Games medals as a rookie. Talk about GIRL 👏🏼 POWER 👏🏼!
“It feels great. I go into every contest with the intention of winning but not the expectation of course,” Eileen says of accomplishing this huge milestone. “I look up to every single girl on the field, especially since this is my first X Games. I’m really just the rookie in the field and I’m looking up to everybody here. I tried my best every time, never expected to win but it was definitely I wanted to and I was working towards it. I’m hyped that I was able to get my biggest goals there and I hope to do more.”
You can keep up with Eileen by connecting with him on Instagram at @eileen_gu_.
Want more X Games Aspen 2021 coverage? Click here!
You can rewatch Eileen’s gold medal run below:
