Eileen Gu needed to pull something out of the bag.
Going into her third run in the women’s slopestyle event, Gu sat in eighth place, having scored a pedestrian 69.90 on her first run and taken a fall off a rail on her second run. A medal favorite coming in, one run was all that stood between Gu and disappointment in an event in which she had taken gold in the 2021 X Games.
With a fearless series of jumps, two 900s sandwiching a 1080, Gu came up with the run she needed to boost her score into a podium place, with an 86.23.
“So, so special,” Gu told the Associated Press. “It really came down to the last run — again.”
Gu’s time didn’t best Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, who won gold with an 86.56 in below-zero temperatures at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China. But Gu finished on the podium with a silver medal. Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru won bronze.
Maggie Voisin, the only American to compete in the event was out of medal contention 74.28 score. American Marin Hamill also qualified for the final, but could not compete due to a leg injury sustained in qualifying.
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Gu wasn’t the only skier to take a fall on her second run. Gremaud took a slide while attempting a double cork and Sildaru lost a ski on her last jump, though she somehow managed to land it. France’s Tess Ledeux, who won silver in the big air, also fell on her second run.
That set the stage for a dramatic set of third runs, with Gremaud watching as the field tried to knock her 86.56 score off the top.
No one did.
“It doesn’t make it easy for myself,” Gu said of the drama. “It certainly doesn’t make it easy for my coaches. My mom has a heart attack every day. It’s definitely not the easiest. But I’m happy I was able to push through and turn that pressure into fuel.”
Gu, who chose to compete for China in the Olympics despite being born in San Francisco, is already the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing, having won gold in the big air competition. The 18-year- old was born to a Chinese mother, Yan, and has competed for the country since June 2019.
She’s said that the Olympics being held in Beijing, and the chance to impact a younger generation of athletes, informed her decision to compete for the host nation. As a result, she’s become the poster child of the games in China. But she’s caught criticism for her decision in the U.S., and had tone-deaf moments, including a comment defending the Chinese government’s internet restrictions a few days ago.
It’s also unclear whether Gu renounced her American citizenship to compete for China. Traditionally, the country does not allow dual citizenship, but Gu has refused to address the situation in interviews.
