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<\/p>\nLIVIGNO, Italy \u2014 Maybe the most staggering thing of Eileen Gu\u2019s entire gold medal-winning day was she lost her balance on the first trick in her first run.<\/p>\n
Perhaps she is mortal? But maybe not as Gu defended her Olympic ski halfpipe title on Sunday to make it six medals in six events over her Winter Games career.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is \u2018Wonder Woman,\u2019\u201d New Zealand\u2019s Mischa Thomas said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Eileen Gu wears her Olympic medals after winning freeski halfpipe Sunday at the Milan-Cortina Games.<\/p>\n
(Hector Vivas \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old Gu, American-born but competing for her mother\u2019s homeland of China, is already the most decorated freeskier in the short history of the sport at the Olympics. She also captured two silver medals at the Milan-Cortina Games, to pair with two golds and a silver from the Beijing Games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason I love the records so much is that it\u2019s not about man or woman,\u201d Gu said. \u201cI\u2019m the most decorated freeskier of all time, male or female. … That\u2019s a testament to competitive strength, it\u2019s mental strength. It\u2019s being able to perform under pressure. It has nothing to (do with) if you\u2019re a boy or a girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gu won the event on the strength of her second run, a clean, technically sound pass. She got even better in her final run \u2014 pumping her ski poles after landing the final trick \u2014 and finished with a score of 94.75. Her teammate, Li Fanghui, took silver and Zoe Atkin of Britain was third.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is unreal,\u201d Thomas said of Gu. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy how good she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was rescheduled to Sunday following a big snowstorm the night before. It was a bright, sunny day as Gu shined in the final event at the Livigno Snow Park. She shielded her eyes from the sun to catch a peek of her winning score \u2014 and instantly liked what she saw.<\/p>\n
There were quite a few Gu fans at the base of the halfpipe, holding up pictures of her and waving flags.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to lead the way and pioneer the sport is something I never imagined I\u2019d be able to do,\u201d Gu said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really honored and proud that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkin, an American-born skier who competes for her father\u2019s homeland of Britain, soared high all contest, a staggering 5.4 meters (18 feet) above the pipe at one point. She finished ninth at the Beijing Games but has been a steady presence on World Cup podiums ever since. She has three victories over the last four years, all in events where Gu didn\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Atkin is the defending world champion.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Gu) is a really great competitor. She\u2019s a really amazing skier,\u201d said Atkin, whose sister, Isabel, won an Olympic bronze in ski slopestyle at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. \u201cWe have an amazing group of skiers as well. I think the level is truly unmatched, and I think that\u2019s really special. I think that makes it really exciting to watch for the next coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Amy Fraser echoed that.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a great skier, and she raises the level for everyone else, but she\u2019s not unbeatable,\u201d said Fraser, who finished fourth. \u201cI don\u2019t think the level is untouchable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her second run, Thomas dropped into the halfpipe \u2014 and dropped her phone. It had to be retrieved for Thomas. After the competition, she reported: \u201cMy phone is great. Never been better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svea Irving was a \u201cDNS\u201d \u2014 did not start \u2014 in the American\u2019s second run. She returned for a third run but struggled to complete a maneuver and finished in 11th.<\/p>\n
Atkin took the lead after the first run with a smooth performance. Meanwhile, Gu lost her balance on her first trick and cut the run short.<\/p>\n
Cassie Sharpe of Canada sat out the final after a hard crash in Thursday\u2019s qualifying round. She won the gold in the event at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and silver four years later in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Graham writes for the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIVIGNO, Italy \u2014 Maybe the most staggering thing of Eileen Gu\u2019s entire gold medal-winning day was she lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[19430,748,395,34470,227182,221493,8639,227183,9465,227184,224689,227185,49,16618,978,659,7038,144593],"class_list":["post-781893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-associated-press","tag-britain","tag-getty-images","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-medal-count","tag-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-result","tag-richard-heathcote","tag-schedule","tag-short-tracker-speedskater","tag-tara-peterson","tag-u-s-curler-taylor-anderson-heide","tag-united-states","tag-update","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wednesday","tag-winter-olympics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116115297131019774","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}