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Josh Ball

Eileen Gu grabbed her second silver of the Winter Olympics and said she was “really proud”, despite failing to defend the freeski big air title she won in Beijing four years ago.
The Chinese star had been among the favourites to win even though she had not competed in the discipline for several years, and seemed destined to do so after major rival Mathilde Gremaud withdrew through injury at the last minute.
A major snowstorm also delayed proceedings by more than an hour, allowing Gu to recover from a nasty fall she took in her last training run.
But she still could not get the better of Canada’s inspired Megan Oldham, who pulled out all the stops to win at Livigno Snow Park. Bronze went to Italian Flora Tabanelli, who had the highest jump score of the day: 94.25 points in her third run.

“Really proud. Five-time Olympic medallist. Kind of has a ring to it,” Gu, the fourth-highest paid female athlete in the world, said. “I’m not disappointed. I’m pretty happy to be here. I didn’t really think I was going to compete in big air.
“I actually had a really bad head hit on my last run of training. I broke a helmet and so I was really happy about the delay, because I was icing my head and lying in a dark room so that I could just adjust.
“Thankfully, I don’t really feel concussed, my head feels all good, but I really needed those 30 minutes. I don’t think the outcome would have been the same if we hadn’t had the delay.”
Oldham, who took bronze in last week’s slopestyle when Gu won silver, scored a total of 180.75 points from the two highest scores after three runs.
She was even able to shake off a fall on her final time down the piste because none of her rivals were able to beat that score. Gu, who risked slipping out of the medal places when she fell on her second run, finished narrowly behind with 179.00 points.
“It feels incredible. I’m still trying to process it all. It’s been such a dream of mine,” Oldham said. “I’m so proud of myself for being able to come out here and land the tricks that I wanted tonight and to show my best skiing and just make Canada proud.”
Gu’s silver in big air, in which competitors take off from a large ramp and perform aerial tricks, means China’s athletes still have not won gold with just six days of the Milano Cortina Games remaining.
But the American-born 22-year-old has another shot, with halfpipe, which she previously called “my pet event”, still to come. The qualification rounds are on Thursday and the finals on Saturday in Italy.
Once again, Gu will be defending a gold medal she won in 2022 and has criticised the sport’s ruling body FIS for scheduling conflicts because the big air final overlapped with the halfpipe training, which she missed.
“I just like being the best,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do that. I wanted to be the best at math when I was in kindergarten, and then I wanted to get into the best high school, and I wanted to have the highest SAT score, and then I wanted to get to the best college, and I wanted to be the best skier I could be. Then I wanted to do every event, and then I wanted to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it’s kind of addictive.”


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China

Canada’s Megan Oldham gets the better of defending champion Eileen Gu, who becomes five-time Winter Olympics medallist


Canada’s Megan Oldham gets the better of defending champion Eileen Gu, who becomes five-time Winter Olympics medallist.


Eileen Gu

China’s Eileen Gu ‘really proud’ of big air silver after inspired Oldham wins Games gold

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Canada’s Megan Oldham gets the better of defending champion Eileen Gu, who becomes five-time Winter Olympics medallist

Canada’s Megan Oldham gets the better of defending champion Eileen Gu, who becomes five-time Winter Olympics medallist