High-flying Gu falls just short in Livigno

Even with the "best-ever" run of her life not enough for a golden finish, China's freeski sensation Gu Ailing is embracing her back-to-back Olympic silver medals in slopestyle as a huge career fulfillment.

Outrun by the same winner to be awarded with the same color of medal, Gu, one of very few multievent title favorites in freeski at Milano-Cortina 2026, described her narrow repeat defeat to slopestyle maestro Mathilde Gremaud at the Olympics as a testament to her progression on, and off, the snow.

"A 10 out of 10 and the best (slopestyle) run ever of my career,"Gu said in high spirits after scoring 86.58 points from her first run to trail Gremaud's winning run by merely 0.38 points, in Monday's final at the Livigno Snow Park.

"I think it's been a great breakthrough for me to be able to finish on the Olympic podium again in this event, and for the fourth time overall. Very few in history have ever done that," said Gu, the 22-year-old reigning Olympic champion in the big air and halfpipe disciplines.

Indeed, it was a great achievement, considering how far she'd fallen only a year ago.

An unexpected hard tumble during a training run prior to last year's Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, resulted in a severe concussion, which left Gu in coma for five minutes, raising concerns from doctors on whether she would wake up, according to a documentary of her Olympic preparation on Tencent.

The physical recovery wasn't the hardest part, though.

The California-born skier has been tested mentally and physically in her meteoric rise since her triumphant Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, with a near-constant stream of hate mail and death threats thrown at her, due to her controversial decision in 2021 to represent her mother's native country China in Beijing. There were even physical assaults.

After proving her athletic prowess on snow by winning three medals in Beijing to become the first freeskier in history to do so at one Games, Gu quickly realized that it's impossible to please everyone, so she's learned to just please herself: stay locked in, block all the noise and focus on nothing but tuning up for the Milano-Cortina Olympics.

"I've gone through things at 22 that I don't think any person should ever have to deal with, be it threats, vitriol, online hate, physical attacks — you name it, the list goes on," said Gu, who racked up a record 20 World Cup series wins right before the Games.

"But, I get stronger, right? That's what's so wonderful about being young. You adapt, you learn and you get stronger and better.

"As far as getting better in skiing, there was a time when I thought that I would never be better than I was when I was 18.

"Overcoming that, and showcasing my very best skiing today, under pressure, when it counted at the Olympics, is such a special experience."

In an afternoon defined by the finest of margins, Gu had an army of supporters on the snow in Livigno. From her mother, who gave her daughter a warm maternal embrace at the finish line, to the scores of Chinese fans lined up in the fan zone.

Dropping in under a clear sky and bright sunshine, Gu went out flying from the off, as she connected a series of dazzling moves during the rail section of the slope course before landing three big air tricks — a switch 900, a double-cork 1080 and a double-cork 1260 — all with different grabs.

Her first-run score of 86.58 points had even eclipsed Gremaud's winning mark of 86.56 four years ago in Beijing, yet stood only for less than an hour until the Swiss defending champion stepped it up a gear by stomping back-to-back 1260 tricks to reset the benchmark in the event. Canadian Megan Oldham rounded out the podium, edging out Britain's Kirsty Muir for bronze with a 76.46-point third run.

Gu suffered some errors on the rails, while trying to perform a new trick she had only learned last week, ironically named "disaster", which cost her momentum for the jumps in her next two runs, before Gremaud took a victory lap on her third run, knowing that she had already secured her second consecutive Olympic gold.

"The level is crazy today," Gremaud said, acknowledging Gu's assessment of the final's competitive level. "It was definitely the craziest competition we've had so far in women's skiing.

"Freestyle skiing is going places, so it was great to be a part of it today. Ailing and Megan, and all the other girls, bring out the best in me when there's nerves and there's a battle."

Monday's final also marked a collective milestone for Team China, with three Chinese athletes making it to the 12-skier Olympic final for the first time.

The trio was also the biggest representation among all nations and regions on the start list.

Liu Mengting, the 21-year-old multi-time World Cup medal winner, eventually finished fifth, while another young Chinese athlete, Han Linshan, did not start due to an injury she picked up during her pre-final training run.

With Gu and Gremaud leading the way, China's next generation of freestylers is eager to learn and ambitious to win.

"The improvement of the Chinese team in freeski couldn't be more obvious, and that owes a lot to Ailing doing extremely well in Beijing," said the 21-year-old Liu.

The Chinese trio will turn their focus to the big air and halfpipe events, with qualification rounds kicking off on Feb 14 and 19, respectively, at the same venue.