Winter Olympics: Su Yiming and Eileen Gu changing face of sport, as China celebrates most successful Games ever
- Su’s big air gold was the host nation’s sixth, the most it has ever won at a Winter Olympics
- Gu, meanwhile, won silver in her slopestyle event taking China’s overall tally to 12 medals, more than its previous best in Vancouver in 2010
If Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said before the Beijing Games that he expected it to “change the face of winter sports”, then Su Yiming and Eileen Gu have laid claim to that challenge.
The Chinese teenagers bagged their second medals of the Games on Tuesday, and each now possesses one gold and one silver. For the host nation at least they represent a Winter Olympics that is already the country’s most successful ever.
Su’s gold was China’s sixth so far; the largest previous haul was at the Vancouver Games in 2010, when its athletes won 11 in total five gold, two silver and four bronze.
This year’s tally already reads six golds, four silver and two bronze, and there are five days left of competition. Gu has one more shot in the half-pipe at the end of the week, while skiers Jia Zongyang and Qi Guangpu have qualified for the final of the men’s aerials on Wednesday.
With the women’s 1,000m relay and men’s 1,500m coming up in the short-track speedskating, the odds of China adding to the medal tally look increasingly good.
Gu won medals in all three events – big air, slopestyle and half-pipe – at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games as well as X Games and world championships in 2021.
“I’m proud of myself to deal with pressure,” said Gu, who missed out on beating Switzerland’s gold medallist Mathilde Gremaud by just 0.33 of a point. “I did everything that I could that was in my control, and some things you just can’t control and you just have to accept it.”
