Hungry Eileen Gu survives 'scary' qualifier to reach Olympic final
Hungry Eileen Gu survives 'scary' qualifier to reach Olympic final
Californian-born Eileen Gu, the face of the Beijing Games after winning freestyle skiing gold for China last week, held her nerve to qualify for the slopestyle final Monday -- then dashed off to practise.
The 18-year-old sensation was down in 11th place after a mediocre first run at Genting Snow Park.
With only the top 12 going through to Tuesday's final, Gu could not afford to make a mess of her second run.
With the pressure on, Gu delivered, her score of 79.38 enough to take her into the final in third place.
"Qualifiers are always scary -- to be in the finals the pressure is off and I can just do my thing," said Gu, who switched allegiance from the United States to China in 2019.
Gu celebrated her second run at the finish line by munching on a local snack, which she said was "super good -- one of my favourites".
She then immediately went off to practise on the halfpipe, which she will compete on later in the week.
"Halfpipe training is going on and I'm supposed to be there," said Gu, who last week won Big Air gold.
"I'm already late and I get like half the amount of practice that everybody else does."
Both the qualification and final of the freeski slopestyle were pushed back a day after heavy snow on Sunday.
Estonia's Kelly Sildaru topped qualifying in first place on 86.15 points, followed by Norway's Johanne Killi on 86.00.
"I think the course is actually pretty good but it's super cold outside and we're not used to this kind of cold weather," said the 19-year-old Sildaru.
"The landings are soft because it snowed yesterday."
Sildaru would not be drawn on her impending battle royal with Gu in Tuesday's final.
"I'm usually not talking about other athletes too much," she said.
"I just want to focus on myself."
(M.LaRue--LPdF)
