Eileen Gu makes it through 'scary' freeski slopestyle qualifiers

ZHANGJIAKOU, Hebei: China's Eileen Gu made it safely through "scary" freestyle skiing slopestyle qualifiers at the Beijing Olympics on Monday (Feb 14), roaring back in her second run with jumps and mid-air grabs to advance to the final.

Qualifiers were always far more "nerve-wracking" than the final, the 18-year-old said as she munched on a Chinese leek dumpling after her smooth second run, where she landed a cork 720 and a right-side 900 with mid-air grabs.

The jumps earned Gu a second run score of 79.38, guaranteeing her a spot in Tuesday's final, though she finished behind Estonia's Kelly Sildaru (86.15) and Norway's Johanne Killi (86.00).

"Qualifiers are always scary," Gu told reporters before hurrying off to halfpipe training at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.

The United States-born athlete, who switched to compete for China in 2019, won gold in the Big Air competition last week and is a favourite for both the slopestyle and halfpipe events.

A small group of local fans stood up and cheered when Gu first dropped into the course, waving little Olympic flags adorned with the Beijing Games' popular panda mascot.

The qualifiers were initially scheduled for Sunday morning but rescheduled to Monday due to heavy snow and poor visibility. Some of the athletes said that the schedule change threw them off their game.

"Yesterday a lot of girls were ready to go, we're ready to do this thing ... Once they were like, 'Alright, postponed, we're going to do it again tomorrow,' you have to mentally reset," said American Maggie Voisin, who still managed to put down clean runs to move forward to the final.

France's Tess Ledeux, who won a Big Air silver medal last week, fell on her back but advanced to the final after coming in at ninth