02/09/26 11:21:00
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02/09 11:19 CST Eileen Gu finishes second but her Olympic slopestyle loss to
Mathilde Gremaud is hardly a 'disaster'
Eileen Gu finishes second but her Olympic slopestyle loss to Mathilde Gremaud
is hardly a 'disaster'
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) --- The nickname for the trick is "disaster." Freeskiing
star Eileen Gu saw it as something other than that.
Because Gu landed that trick once at the top of the supersized rails portion of
the Olympic slopestyle course Monday, she opened her Milan-Cortina odyssey ---
three events and up to 15 dangerous trips down the slopes over 15 days --- with
a second straight silver medal in the event.
Because she couldn't land it the other two times over the three-run contest,
she never really had a chance to go for gold.
For the second straight time, that belonged to Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud
in what, only minutes after it was over, was already being hailed as the best
women's slopestyle contest in the sport's history.
"That was definitely the best slopestyle run I've ever done," Gu said.
And Gremaud: "I would say it's the best one I've ever done in my life, yes."
Megan Oldham of Canada hit back-to-back jumps with 1260 degrees of spin --- not
an everyday occurrence out there --- and finished with the bronze.
Not surprisingly, the world's two best skiers each nailing the best runs of
their lives resulted in a margin of .38 --- a sliver of space that was
virtually the same as the gap when they also finished 1-2 at the Beijing Games
four years ago.
And yet, for two skiers so closely bunched, the difference in their approaches
couldn't have been more stark.
About two weeks ago, Gu set about reworking her rails portion --- the four
features on the more-technical top of the slope --- to juice up her Olympic
routine.
There are options up there, and on the very first rail, Gu was the only skier
out of the 12 finalists to choose the longer rail on the right.
The trick --- skiing backward, then leaping over the lower part of the feature
while twisting to her right, the unnatural direction, and trying to land
smack-dab on the rail --- is called "disaster" for a very simple reason.
"It can go really, really bad," said U.S. coach Ryan Wyble, one of many,
including NBC analyst and former pro freeskier Tom Wallisch, who called this
the most progressive women's contest they'd seen.
When it goes good, though, you end up with what Gu had --- the lead and a sense
of real accomplishment after landing it on her first run, especially knowing it
was that trick that tripped her up throughout training and also caused the
first-run fall two days earlier that turned qualifying into such a stresser.
"To be able to put it down when it counts, to peak at the right time, I really
think it's important and a testament to my mental strength," Gu said.
The judges liked it. The 9.2 they awarded for the first jump and the 25.95 they
gave for the entire rails portion were the highest marks of the day.
But the high-flying part of this show --- the part that brings the oohs and
ahhs and that landed this event on the Olympic program 12 years ago --- begins
with the three jumps toward the bottom. That's where Gremaud placed her focus
in the run-up to the Olympics, and it showed.
For her winning run, Gremaud, a 26-year-old who has last year's world
championship title to go with her two Olympic golds, skied backward, then
flipped twice while spinning once and nailed the landing. It was the first time
she'd ever pulled that off in a contest. She followed that with back-to-back
1260s, each in a different direction.
"Definitely the most intense run I've ever done," she said.
Gu, meanwhile, could not land the "disaster" on either her second or third
runs. After her final fall, she stabbed her poles into the ground and put her
hand on her hips. Moments later, she was skiing down, then smiling into the
camera at the bottom.
All of which turned Gremaud's final run into a victory lap. She did straight
big airs down the course with her country's flag flapping from the back of her
ski suit.
"I was not happy for you that you didn't land the third run," Gremaud said to
Gu during the medalist news conference. "But I was happy for myself that I
didn't have to go and, like, send it again for the third run."
Gu laughed. She gets it. More than the medalists themselves, the real winner on
this day, all agreed, was women's skiing.
"Did I want to land a second and third run? Yes. Did I have plans to do bigger
and better tricks? Yes. But can I be at all disappointed or feel in any way
except for immensely proud? No," she said. "The first run I landed was the run
I came here to do. I'm proud of my skiing.
"You are literally watching women's skiing evolve in real time, and how special
is that?" -__
AP writer Joseph Wilson in Livigno contributed to this report.
___
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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