High-flying Gu raises the stakes

A fifth straight win at her happy hunting ground has elevated halfpipe freeskier Gu Ailing's confidence for her Olympic title defense, as the American-born star reiterated her pride in skiing for China on the global stage.

China's two-time freeski Olympic champion Gu, known as Eileen in the United States, has proved from the get-go that she remains the clear-cut favorite at Milano-Cortina 2026, after the halfpipe specialist pulled off a dramatic comeback win on Saturday at the FIS World Cup season opener in Chongli, Hebei province.

Gu did so against a blizzard blowing across the Yunding Snow Park and a competitive foe in Britain's reigning world champion Zoe Atkin, the biggest threat to Gu's Olympic reign.

With almost every skier's speed and amplitude affected by the strong wind and heavy snow, Gu also had to compromise on the quality of her first run in the final, scoring 85.25 points, modest by her own standards, which placed her second in the 10-woman field behind Aktin's clean, 90.25-point execution.

With her back against the wall, Gu, dropping in last, did not hold back, leading off her second run with her signature back-to-back 900 tricks, then a switch indy 720 Japan followed by a left alley-oop flatspin 540 mute, before finishing with a right alley-oop flatspin 540 critical grab on the final hit to score a field-high 91.75 and seal a comeback win.

Cheered on by a vocal crowd flying her banners and chanting her name, Gu took a victory lap around the park, celebrating her fifth consecutive win at the Beijing 2022 venue, where she's racked up three World Cup titles in a row to go with her Olympic gold in halfpipe.

"That was not easy. I've been struggling with speed all through training," said Gu, who won the inaugural edition of The Snow League's Chongli leg at the same park as a warm-up the week before the World Cup meet.

"I actually almost didn't compete because I was worried I wouldn't be able to do my tricks at the amplitude I was at," said Gu, who also won Olympic gold in 2022 in another high-flying discipline — big air — at west Beijing's Shougang Industrial Park.

"That was the first full run that I've landed all day. It was such a mental battle."

Australia's Indra Brown finished third, behind runner-up Atkin, to secure her first World Cup podium finish in what was the 15-year-old's Cup debut in Chongli.

China's two other finalists Zhang Kexin and Li Fanghui finished fifth and ninth, respectively, with their performance also affected by the challenging weather conditions.

With the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, Gu, who suffered multiple injuries that took their toll on her consistency during the 2024-25 season and forced her to withdraw from the world championships and Asian Winter Games, hailed her tough comeback win as a much-needed confidence boost.

"I've been training so much, I've been working so hard, and every single time I stay the extra hour, do the extra run, it's proof to myself," said the versatile 22-year-old skier, who also won a silver medal in slopestyle at Beijing 2022.

"It's evidence to myself that I'm a winner and I deserve to win. So just building back confidence, slowly."

'A natural choice'

As familiar to her as getting back to winning ways, and with another Olympics just around the corner, Gu has again been facing media scrutiny for her choice to represent China, her mother's home country.

She has insisted that her decision to compete on behalf of China instead of the US since 2019 was a genuine and natural choice to promote skiing — and all the positive influence the sport brings — on the biggest possible stage.

"I think there are five athletes in this field who compete for other countries that weren't the ones they were born in, so I mean it's not that crazy of a thing to be doing at this point," Gu answered in English to a question about her representation of China after Thursday's qualification round.

"You can go back to my first interviews when I was just eight or nine years old, and I've been saying the same things since then.

"That was way before I thought I'd have a career in this sport, way before any national teams either wanted me to ski for them or even knew I existed," Gu said.

"For me, just knowing deep from my heart that my message remains the same, and it's to bring the sport to more people and to contribute a net positive good to the world."

With Gu leading the way, China's maturing homegrown talents Li and Zhang have also emerged as strong medal contenders for Milano-Cortina 2026.

"Looking forward to the Olympics, I think I will have to improve the quality and details of my tricks, such as the grabs and amplitude, to go for the podium," said the 22-year-old Li, who won her first halfpipe World Cup title at the Calgary leg in Canada on Feb 16.