Winter Olympics 2022 - China's Eileen Gu ‘not going to waste time’ wading into nationality debate after big air gold

Eileen Gu said she was more interested in celebrating with a special bar of chocolate than wading into an argument about her nationality, after the American-born Chinese star won gold in the freestyle skiing big air event at the Winter Olympics. The 18-year-old is undoubtedly the most high-profile home athlete of the Games, and she got her bid to win triple gold off to a perfect start, beating Tess Ledoux of France by 0.75 points to claim the title. Britain’s 17-year-old Kirsty Muir showed her immense promise by finishing fifth.

Ad/> Gu will also target halfpipe and slopestyle gold and she had already planned her celebration, which she earned with a brilliantly executed 1620 trick on her final run that she had never pulled off in competition before. /> Beijing 2022‘Absolutely stomping!’ — GB's 17-year-old Muir stars in big air final28 MINUTES AGO «I brought a package of holiday-themed peppermint dark Ghirardelli chocolate, so I'm going to open that today. I've been saving it for my first final.

It's kind of an exciting moment,» Gu said. «Even if I hadn't landed it (the final trick), I felt it would send a message out to the world and hopefully encourage more girls to break their own boundaries. »That was my biggest goal going into my last run.

I reminded myself to have fun and enjoy the moment and that, no matter what, I was so grateful to even have this opportunity to be here. «Right now I'm going to say big air is my favourite [event] because I just had the best happiest moment of my life here. But halfpipe also ranks pretty high.” Gu’s decision to represent China — the country her mother is from — rather than the US, where she was born and raised, has been controversial, and there has never been clarification on