Eileen Gu says she’s skiing with ‘weight of 2 countries on my shoulders’ after slopestyle silver
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud wins slopestyle gold for second Winter Olympics running after Eileen Gu falls at start of final run
Eileen Gu said she felt as though she were skiing “with the weight of two countries on my shoulders” after again being beaten to Winter Olympics gold in the women’s slopestyle by Mathilde Gremaud.
The Swiss 26-year-old defended her Beijing title with a historic performance in Livigno on Monday, leaving Gu to add another silver to the one she claimed four years ago.
Canada’s Megan Oldham took bronze, just holding on to deny Britain’s Kirsty Muir despite a big crash on her second run.
For Gu, who was born in America but represents China and faces constant scrutiny over which passport she actually holds, the result gave her a fourth Olympics medal and she still has her big air and halfpipe titles to defend in the Italian Alps.
Slopestyle gold though was again out of reach, and while Gremaud’s successful landing of a nose butter double cork 1260 - a trick never before successfully performed by a woman at a Games - led to her winning score of 86.96, it should not have been an insurmountable challenge for her rival.
But having laid down the gauntlet with a technically impressive opening run that scored 86.58, Gu again came unstuck on the rails, falling at the start of her final chance to beat the Swiss skier.