Eileen Gu comes through with World Cup halfpipe gold in Calgary

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. Svea Irving of the United States took bronze at 90.25.

Canadian Amy Fraser, 28, finished just off the podium in fourth with a score of 87.75, but she still ended the night on the Crystal Globe podium as No. 2 overall in the world this season behind only Gu.

Atkin finished third in the overall point race on the women's side.

"Competing at home is nice," said Fraser, who opened the World Cup season with a bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympic venue. "It's pretty nice to be here and sleep in my own bed."

WATCH l Fraser takes 2nd place behind reigning Olympic champ on Friday:

In spite of the many friends and family in attendance, Fraser had modest plans to celebrate.

"I'm going to go to bed," she said. "I really haven't had a good sleep. It's been a long three days of competing. So, I'm