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| China's Eileen Gu competes during the women's slopestyle finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 15. AP-Yonhap |
Eileen Gu earned a silver medal with her final run of the Olympic women's ski slopestyle contest Tuesday, keeping alive her quest to become the first action-sports athlete to capture three medals at the same Winter Games.
Gu's bid for another gold medal was thwarted by Mathilde Gremaud. The freestyle skier from Switzerland won the event on a bitterly cold and hazy day with the temperature hovering around minus 20 degrees Celsius. Kelly Sildaru of Estonia took home bronze.
Sitting in eighth place after two runs, Gu used a strong final performance to work her way onto the podium. Her run included a double-cork 900 with a Buick grab at the end that impressed the judges and earned her a score of 86.23. She couldn't catch Gremaud, though, who scored an 86.56 on her second run.
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| From left, Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China, gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland and bronze Kelly Sildaru of Estonia celebrate during women's freestyle skiing slopestyle final at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, Feb. 15. EPA-Yonhap |
It's an upgrade in medals for Gremaud, who won the silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games and captured bronze in big air last week in Beijing. She also finished second at the Winter X Games last month.
Gu, the 18-year-old American-born freestyler who is competing for her mother's home country of China, won the big air contest last week. She also is competing in the halfpipe competition.
It was a difficult start for Gu, who struggled on an early rail in her first run. Then, on her second pass through the Secret Garden course, she over-rotated on a trick off a rail and tumbled to the snow. She put her helmet back on and skied to the bottom.
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| China's Eileen Gu competes during the women's slopestyle finals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 15. AP-Yonhap |
Before starting her third and final run, she put her hands on her hips and stared off to the side of the course to find her focus. Then she turned in a splendid run.
American Maggie Voisin wound up fifth. Teammate Marin Hamill made the field for the final but didn't start after hurting her leg in a crash during the qualifying round. The team said she was heading back to the U.S. for further evaluation. (AP)
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