Gu, who says halfpipe is her most powerful match, ruled from the beginning.
Over and over again, she accelerated the wall of the halfpipe and introduced herself skyward, spinning and twisting gracefully to loud cheers from lovers within the stands.
Already firmly within the lead, she outdid herself in the second one run with an excellent ranking of 95.25. She used to be already confident of the gold by the point she activate on a 3rd run victory lap.
Gu gave her trainer a large hug on the most sensible of the slope, got here down the halfpipe as soon as once more and completed the journey with simple jumps, posing and celebrating her victory in midair.
“It’s been two immediately weeks of essentially the most intense highs and lows I have ever skilled in my lifestyles. It has modified my lifestyles endlessly,” she mentioned.
Reflecting on her first and history-making Olympic Video games, Gu mentioned her overriding emotion used to be a “deep-seated sense of gratitude and backbone.”
“Similar to this all coming in combination, years and years within the making and it is like letting out a deep breath. I think exhausted. I imply, God, from opening rite till now I have been snowboarding each and every unmarried day so I am in reality drained, however I think at peace. I think thankful. I think passionate, and I think proud,” she mentioned.
Canada’s Cassie Sharpe claimed silver with a very best ranking of 90.75, together with her teammate Rachael Karker taking bronze. An emotional Gu embraced either one of them as they posed for footage after match.
A breakout famous person
The Beijing 2022 Olympics were a leap forward second for Gu as she turned into probably the most largest stars of the Video games.
Born and raised in California, Gu selected in 2019 to compete for China, the place she is referred to as Gu Sick. Within the lead-up to the Video games, her reputation skyrocketed, together with her face splashed throughout billboards, advertisements, mag covers and on state tv.
And for the reason that Video games were given underway, she has turn out to be a countrywide sensation, incomes greater than 5 million lovers on social media website Weibo.
She used to be hailed because the “satisfaction of China” after successful her first gold, and has since gained extra medals than any person else for Staff China at those Video games. Following her ultimate victory within the halfpipe, China now boasts 8 gold medals — the similar as america (even supposing China’s overall medal rely lags at the back of the USA.)
However Gu has performed down the nationwide contention within the game.
“Something I really like such a lot about freeskiing is that this camaraderie and this spirit of beef up wherein it isn’t about what nation you are snowboarding for, it is about our shared pastime for the game and this distinctive talent for this excessive game to unite folks as a result of we are not right here to wreck limits for a rustic, we are right here to wreck the human restrict,” she mentioned.
“It is not about nationality, it is about bringing folks in combination. It is about sharing tradition. It is about finding out from every different and forging friendships.”
Regardless that Gu switched to compete for China, it is unclear whether or not she renounced her American citizenship — most often a demand for Chinese language naturalization, for the reason that nation does no longer permit twin citizenship. She has again and again dodged questions on her citizenship whilst highlighting her twin id, steadily announcing: “When I am in China, I am Chinese language. When I am in the USA, I am American.”
