Golden Gu spearheads China's charge

Born to a Chinese mother and an American father in San Francisco, Gu, better known as Eileen in the States, completed a naturalization process last June to represent China in international competition.

Now she has her sights set on doing her mother's home country proud at the 2022 Beijing Games.

A versatile skier who was won multiple national junior titles in the US, Gu shot to prominence last month after winning two golds and a silver (in halfpipe, Big Air and slopestyle) at her debut Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland.

With Gu now on board in freeski, China's snow sports contingent, which also features world-class aerial skiers and halfpipe snowboarders, is determined to challenge Western dominance on the snow in 2022.

Joining the quest are the snowboarding duo of Cai Xuetong and Liu Jiayu, who also finished off their World Cup season on a high note in Calgary.

Right after Gu's win, Cai claimed the women's halfpipe gold with a 87.25-point first run to cap her season atop the Cup standings and bring home the coveted crystal globe as the circuit's overall winner for a record sixth time.

Liu finished third in the tour finale to finish second behind Cai in the rankings.