Thousands of people crammed onto the hill at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park Saturday night in Calgary to snap pictures and scream in support of Eileen Gu.
The superstar freestyle skier delivered for the Snow Rodeo faithful by capturing World Cup gold with a dazzling score of 97.0 on her last of three runs on the halfpipe.
The San Francisco-born Gu, who competes for China, didn't even need to put down her final run as she already had the victory locked up. "Honestly, I think the core identify of this sport is self-betterment," said the 20-year-old Gu. "It's about self-expression and creativity, and it's about being a little better than I was yesterday. "I try to bring that into every contest I enter.
I generally don't take victory laps. I always try to do a little better and push a little bit harder just to show the audience what it's all about and really just have fun." Zoe Atkin of Great Britain seized silver with a score of 92.00.