Eighteen-year-old Olympic sensation Eileen Gu took home the Gold for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
The American-born Chinese freestyle skier, representing Team China, finished off her round with an impressive third run, which sealed the deal and earned her the Gold medal.
Gu scored 94.5, including a perfect landing and a double cork 1620, which she had never landed in competition before. In fact, only one other woman had ever landed the trick in competition: Tess Ledeux of France, who also landed it on Tuesday (February 8), winning the Silver medal with a total score of 187.50. Nonetheless, Gu’s perfect landing and outstanding total score of 188.25 was enough to take home the Gold.
“I’m not crying. I’m definitely not crying,” Gu said into the camera after skiing to the bottom of the hill. When asked of the event later, she would remark, “That was the best moment of my life. The happiest moment, day, whatever, of my life. I just cannot believe what just happened.”
Gu for GOLD.
Eileen Gu wins Women's Big Air gold with a double cork 1620 on her final run. #WinterOlympicspic.twitter.com/VMC8T19xvB
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 8, 2022
Following Gu’s win, the Chinese social media platform Weibo was flooded with posts regarding the victory, and reportedly crashed due to the amount of activity on the site.
Gu had some encouraging words to describe how she would have felt if she did not win the contest. “Even if I didn’t land it, I felt it would send a message out to the world and hopefully encourage more girls to break their own boundaries. That was my biggest goal going into my last run. I reminded myself to have fun and enjoy the moment and that, no matter what, I was so grateful to even have this opportunity to even be here.”
Gu, who was born in San Francisco to an American father and Chinese mother, opted to represent Team China in the Olympics. When asked about her nationality, Gu refused to comment, as dual citizenship is normally not permitted in China. Nonetheless, her decision to represent Team China paid off big time for the country and its citizens.
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