LIVIGNO, Italy — Eileen Gu last competed in a big air contest four years ago. She learned the trick that helped her reach the medals stand Monday night four days ago. Then, in a frenzied training session before the snowy Olympic final, she tried an even bigger trick, but hit her head on the landing and cracked her helmet.
Given all that, finishing second, a mere 1.75 points behind Canada's Megan Oldham, felt like a victory, not a loss for the sport's best-known star. Given all that, picking up a fifth medal in the five events she has entered over two Winter Olympics felt like a time to celebrate, not think about what might have been.
“‘Five-time Olympic medalist’ kind of has a nice ring to it,” Gu said.
While Gu has two silvers at these Olympics — one in slopestyle and the latest in big air — Oldham, the 24-year-old from Parry Sound, Ontario, has a bronze and a gold.
Egged on by her older brother, Bruce, who is also a pro freeskier, Oldham traded in gymnastics and figure skating a handful of years ago to start catapulting herself off mountains. The other sports taught her a lot about “air awareness, and spinning in general,” she said.
It also took her from a pair of dangerous sports to one that borders on death-defying. In this Olympic big air contest, the adrenaline junkies have to ride an actual elevator to the top of a scaffolding on which sits a man-made hill 165 feet in the air.
“A brutal sport,” Oldham called it. “A lot of times when you're learning these new tricks, you can fall pretty hard.”
She suffered a concussion in December and said she felt pressure, not knowing if she could make it back in time for the Olympics.
“Just coming back from that alone, I'm pretty proud of myself,” Oldham said.
So was bronze medalist Flora Tabanelli, who took bronze for Italy's 23rd medal of the Games. She's four months removed from a torn ACL. She decided to compete in a brace instead of opting for season-ending surgery.
“Three months ago, after the injury, I thought I wouldn't make it here,” she said. “When I arrived here and said to myself, ‘I feel pretty good,’ it was already a win.”
Gu brought friends with her, and suddenly found herself in medal contention
Gu, naturally, came to Italy with better name recognition and higher expectations than anyone else in the snowpark.
After her first jump, a 1440-degree whirl that put her in medal contention, she ran to the stands to celebrate. She had friends from college and from junior high who took advantage of the three-day weekend in the United States to come watch.
She's the sport's only three-event athlete. So, over the past few years, something had to give between all the skiing, Stanford University, modeling and globe-trotting between her native U.S. and her mom's home country of China, the country she competes for. That one thing was big air.
She had not been on an entry sheet for the sport's highest-flying discipline since the day she left Beijing four years ago with the first of two gold medals in tow.
“If you'd asked me four days ago and said, ‘What tricks are you going to do in the final?’ I'd be, like, ‘I’m in the final?'” she said.
During warmups for the final, she crashed while trying a 1620-degree spin, the likes of which won her that gold.
She was fortunate that a near blizzard rushed through the snowpark shortly after, delaying the start by 75 minutes and giving her a chance to rest in a dark room. The contest itself was held under a moderate snow (which can slow down the run) and no wind.
“I really needed those ... minutes,” she said. “I don't think the outcome would've been the same, to be honest with you.”
Oldham celebrates, but for Gu, it's time for halfpipe practice
Oldham's victory came on her other brother, Cody's, 18th birthday. “He can celebrate with us,” she said.
For Gu, there was no time for rest.
She hasn't skied halfpipe since December. She was frustrated to have missed one of the three halfpipe training sessions the rest of the skiers are getting for a qualifying round that starts Thursday. She now has two days to make up for lost time. Halfpipe is maybe her best event — it's where she's captured 15 of her record-setting 20 World Cup wins.
“I think it was Kobe (Bryant) who said the greatest athletes have the shortest memories, and I try to follow that,” Gu said. “I am in goldfish mode, I finish this and go straight into the next.”
As for the notion that she has anything left to prove — or anything to be disappointed about after picking up another silver medal, which gives her more Olympic medals than any woman in the history of freestyle skiing — she let loose a chortle.
“Winning a medal in the Olympics is a life-changing experience, and doing it five times is exponentially hard,” she said. “The ‘two medals lost’ perspective is ridiculous to take. I am showcasing my best skiing and doing things that have never been done before, so that is more than enough.”
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Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson contributed to this report.
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