Lausanne, Switzerland, January 18, 2020: China is looking for winter sports stars ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics – and they may have just found one here at the Winter YOG in Lausanne.
Eileen Gu Ailing, 16, won the silver medal in the freestyle skiing women’s freeski slopestyle on Saturday – just a few months after a switch of nationality from USA to China, approved by the IOC. She is an extraordinary emerging talent and could light up Beijing 2022 if she continues with her progress.
After finishing runner-up to world champion Kelly Sildaru (EST) by just half a point, Gu said: “This is my first competition of the season because I’m a full-time high school student. But I’m graduating soon and then I’ll have 17 months of straight training up until Beijing. That’s the most time that I’ve had on snow, ever.”
Gu, who grew up in San Francisco with her Chinese mother and grandmother, has been courted by both the USA and Chinese freeski teams.
“Choosing to compete for China was the hardest decision I’ll ever make,” she said. “The way the US team supported my transfer has been unreal. They said:
‘Hey, you’re still one of us, you can still use our facilities and come to our camps.’ It’s testament to sports being really international.
“Some people may say ‘she’s an American girl, she’s just going to China for X, Y or Z’. But I’m fluent in Mandarin and I’ve spent a quarter of my life in China. I go there every summer. At home we speak Chinese, we eat Chinese. I feel connected to both countries.”
Gu’s mother texted her before her last run, telling her to drink some water and that she believed in her.
“She has supported me all the way,” said Gu. “So a big part of the decision was Beijing 2022. It’s a huge opportunity because a lot of people in China are turning their attention to this sport.
“They need a role model, someone who loves freeskiing. We are seeing it grow in China a lot. I used to know everyone involved in the scene. Now there are thousands.”
Gu was the centre of Chinese press attention at the bottom of her run and is certain to be in the limelight at Beijing 2022 but she is not feeling under pressure.
“I’m ready,” she said. “Everyone on the world stage feels pressure, but it doesn’t come from the country. At the top I was stressing out but I wasn’t thinking ‘I have to do it for the government or the people’. I was putting the pressure on myself.”
Source: Olympic Information Service
