{"id":591144,"date":"2026-02-15T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/591144\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T06:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T06:30:12","slug":"olympic-ski-star-eileen-gu-says-shes-disappointed-she-cant-get-help-with-her-packed-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/591144\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic ski star Eileen Gu says she’s disappointed she can’t get help with her packed schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Eileen Gu secured her spot in the\u00a0Winter Olympics\u00a0big air final Saturday, she said she was disappointed that Games organizers wouldn\u2019t make accommodations to allow her the same amount of training as the rest of the skiers in her third and final event, the halfpipe.<\/p>\n

Gu,\u00a0who won silver in slopestyle\u00a0earlier in the week<\/a>, is the only female freeskier signed up for all three disciplines \u2014 slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. <\/p>\n

The big air final Monday overlaps with the first of three, three-hour halfpipe training sessions for that event scheduled later next week.<\/p>\n

US-born Olympian Eileen Gu, who competes for China, is the only female freeskier signed up for all three disciplines \u2014 slopestyle, halfpipe and big air. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Gu,\u00a0one of the biggest names\u00a0at the Milan Cortina Games<\/a>, told reporters she reached out to organizers at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), which sets the schedule.<\/p>\n

She said she wasn\u2019t asking for special treatment, just the same amount of practice as everyone else was getting, and she even looked for compromises, like joining the snowboarders\u2019 training on the halfpipe. FIS told her it couldn\u2019t make a change for one athlete because it wouldn\u2019t be fair to the rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disappointed in FIS,\u201d Gu said. \u201cI think the Olympics should epitomize aspiration, and I think being able to do something that\u2019s beyond the ordinary should be celebrated instead of punished.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIS scheduled three training sessions before qualifying, compared to two for a typical World Cup event. Spokesman Bruno Sassi said \u201cevery effort has been made to facilitate the best possible training\u201d for the athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as we have already seen at these Games, for athletes who choose to compete in multiple disciplines and\/or multiple events, conflicts can sometimes be inevitable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eileen Gu receives a hug from her mother, Yan Gu, as she competes in the women\u2019s freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy, on February 14, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Earlier in the Olympics,\u00a0Ester Ledecka\u00a0had to choose between defending her snowboard title and entering her favorite skiing event, the downhill, some five hours away in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo. <\/p>\n

She picked snowboarding (where she finished fifth) and instead skied in the super-G (where she crashed and did not finish).<\/p>\n

Gu \u2014 who was born in the United States but competes for China<\/a> \u2014 hasn\u2019t skied on a halfpipe since a World Cup event in December. <\/p>\n

Eileen Gu competes in the women\u2019s freestyle skiing big air qualification during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on February 14, 2026. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

She hasn\u2019t competed in big air since winning the gold medal in the discipline four years ago in Beijing. That was part of her three-medal haul in China \u2014 something she\u2019s on track to repeat in Italy.<\/p>\n

Big air and slopestyle are essentially cousins \u2014 the big jumps on the big air course aren\u2019t unlike the three big jumps in slopestyle. But halfpipe is a different and more dangerous undertaking. Of Gu\u2019s 20 World Cup victories, 15 have come in that event.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfpipe is an entirely different event,\u201d Gu said. \u201cIt\u2019s like sprinting and a marathon. They\u2019re both running but they\u2019re completely different sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the last Olympics, Gu\u2019s slopestyle contest ended a few hours before halfpipe training began. She chowed on a chive pancake at the bottom of the hill as she wound her way through interviews, then hurried back up the lift to start training for the third part of her Olympic journey.<\/p>\n

This time, Gu came close to not having to worry about the scheduling conflict. <\/p>\n

She fell during her second jump in big air qualifying, turning the last attempt into an all-or-nothing jump to make the final. It was similar to what happened in slopestyle and, just as in slopestyle, she came through.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I haven\u2019t done it in four years, I still know how to ski,\u201d she said. \u201cI still know my body and I can still do flips, and I\u2019m not really thinking about a medal, or any color of medal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eileen Gu said she was disappointed that Games organizers wouldn\u2019t make accommodations to allow her the same amount of training. AP<\/p>\n

She is, however, thinking about her schedule \u2014 which will be breakneck with or without that first halfpipe training session.<\/p>\n

After Monday\u2019s big air final, the halfpipe qualifiers are Thursday. The final is Saturday. It means Gu will headline the last of the 25 medal events scheduled in the action-sports park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really unfair. I think it\u2019s punishing excellence, to be completely honest with you,\u201d Gu said. \u201cBecause I dare to do three events, and this is making it completely impossible to train fairly for the third event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Eileen Gu secured her spot in the\u00a0Winter Olympics\u00a0big air final Saturday, she said she was disappointed that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":591145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[3777,146545,62,67,132,68,247509],"class_list":["post-591144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-olympics","tag-skiing","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-winter-olympics-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116073242627080376","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}