Mission accomplished as Gu hits new heights

Team China megastar proud of 'life-changing' Olympic campaign after completing historic medal treble

Gu Ailing not only made more Olympic history on Friday, she did so with consummate ease.

Team China's teenage freeski megastar had halfpipe gold wrapped up by her second run at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, allowing her to turn her third effort into a victory lap.

"I've never taken a victory lap before in my entire life, so I felt like, 'You know what, last event at the Olympics it feels like I finally deserve it'. I'm really happy," Gu told reporters after becoming the first athlete to win Olympic medals in all three freeski disciplines.

"It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I've ever experienced in my life. It has changed my life forever," she said of her Beijing 2022 experience, adding that her historic medal hat-trick was a "huge honor".

After claiming gold on the Big Air ramp－becoming China's first female Olympic gold medalist on snow－and silver in slopestyle earlier at the Games, Gu again lived up to the hype on Friday, laying down a marker with a first-run score of 93.25, before putting the result beyond doubt with a score of 95.25.

Silver medalist and defending champion Cassie Sharpe was quite a way back on 90.75 points, with another Canadian, Rachael Karker, claiming bronze on 87.75.

Gu's achievements are all the more remarkable considering the huge expectations on her young shoulders after arriving in Beijing as the biggest story of the Games.

Born in California to a Chinese mother, Gu began competing for China when she was 15 in 2019, stating her aim to "inspire millions of young people during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing... and promote the sport I love".

Since then the part-time model and grade-A Stanford-bound student has been busy racking up records, titles and firsts. All the while her superstar status has snowballed, as evidenced by her millions of followers on social media.

Her history-making exploits at the 2021 X Games in Aspen, Colorado, where she won Big Air, halfpipe and slopestyle golds, cranked up the anticipation levels for her Olympic debut in Beijing.

Slopestyle silver last week meant she couldn't quite match that extraordinary feat at Beijing 2022, but it was still definitely a sense of mission accomplished on Friday.

"The overriding emotion is this deep-seated sense of gratitude and resolution－this all coming together, years and years in the making," she said, wearing a panda hat after the victory ceremony.

"It's like letting out a deep breath."

The 18-year-old also clearly feels she has achieved much away from the sporting arena at Beijing 2022.

"I feel as though I have met my goal, at least in the capacity that I'd hoped to at age 15. You know, I never would have imagined, first of all, that I would even make it here. Second of all, to be able to have the kind of platform that I do today," said Gu, who has been a regular visitor to China through the years for family trips.

"To read the hundreds of messages that I get every day in my DMs from young girls saying that they heard about free skiing for the first time because they saw me on TV at the Olympics today, or they went skiing and they thought of me and they're having a great time and they want to keep going or they, you know, broke their boundaries in some other way and felt inspired by something that I said. All those little things, I feel, are immensely rewarding."

Gu is set to begin her studies at Stanford later this year and said she had "no idea" whether she would continue to compete in freestyle skiing.

"I love skiing still, I would love to continue competing, but in terms of resources and time and whatever else I'm juggling, it just depends," she said.

"I'm going to do whatever feels right, and hopefully I'll be able to create some kind of positive change out of any position that I'm in."

The immediate plan was a little more straightforward－eating hotpot with her mother and grandmother.

"When I am with family, we don't celebrate like jumping around. What we do is a deeper sense of pride and sharing the joy. I will definitely give them hugs and share with them my feelings. I am tired. I know they are also tired," she said.

"But I feel at peace, I feel grateful, I feel passionate and I feel proud."