Gu Ailing wins slopestyle silver again

China's golden girl Gu Ailing hailed her silver?medal?winning performance in freestyle skiing slopestyle at Milano?Cortina 2026 as a major career milestone, even though she narrowly missed out on the top step of the podium for a second straight Olympics.

Although she again finished one step lower than the same opponent on the biggest stage, Gu was all smiles on Monday after winning her second Olympic silver in slopestyle, scoring 86.58 points on her first run, in a fiercely contested final won by defending champion Mathilde Gremand of Switzerland with an 86.96?point second attempt.

Canada's Megan Oldham rounded up the podium by scoring 76.46 points from her third run to win the bronze medal.

Asked whether it was a pity to miss out on gold for the second time in the event, Gu said she had no regrets at all, only pride.

"A 10 out of 10 and the best (slopestyle) run of my career," said Gu, in high spirits after reviewing her final performance at the Livigno Snow Park in northern Italy.

"I've completed the highest-level slopestyle run of my life (in the first attempt) and I am so proud of that.

"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 had ever done that.

"The past four years have been really tough for me. I've experienced a lot of hard time that a normal 22-year-old woman wouldn't have to go through, with all the expectation on me.

"It was like I had to win everything and it not it's a failure. How would that be possible? That was so hard. I am just so proud of myself to pull it off," said Gu, who won two gold medals (big air and halfpipe) to go with her slopestyle silver on home snow at Beijing 2022.

Dropping in under clear sky and bright sunshine on Monday, Gu went out flying from the go as she connected a series of dazzling moves during the rail section of the slope course before she landed three big air tricks, including a switch 900, a double-cork 1080 and a double-cork 1260, all with different grabs, and in front of a cheering crowd of Chinese supporters at the Livigno park.

Her first-run score of 86.58 points was her best ever in the event, even eclipsing Gremand's winning mark of 86.56 four years ago in Beijing.

The Swiss slopestyle specialist stepped up her performance in the second run, stomping back-to-back 1260 tricks to reset the benchmark in the event, just less than an hour after Gu's first run.

Gu suffered some errors on the rails, while trying to perform a trick she had only learned last week, casting the momentum for her jumps in her next two runs before Gremand took a victory lap in her third run, knowing that her second had already secured her a second Olympic gold in a row.

The Swiss star said: "I really needed to upgrade that first run. I had two little bubbles on jump one and three in the first run and put me in second position. I really knew I had to be stronger on the second run, and somehow I managed to do it.

"It was a lot of fun. I was very focused and I was very excited to ski, and I was pretty calm as well. It took a lot of mental preparation, a lot of support from my family and from my team."

Gu will next try to defend her golds in the big air and halfpipe events, with qualification rounds kicking off on Feb 14 and 19, respectively, at the same venue.