Eileen Gu has collected two golds and one silver at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games
(Picture: Getty Images)Eileen Gu picked up her third medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics with gold in the women’s freeski halfpipe as Britain’s Zoe Atkin finished back in ninth place.
The 19-year-old American-born athlete representing China was a class apart from the moment she took to the 200metre course known as the Secret Garden.
A first run of 93.25 points, which included back-to-back 900s and a switch left 360, could not be bettered by anyone other than Gu, who added two more points with a second run just marginally more daring.
From the moment these Games begun, she has looked unfazed by the pressure of being their poster girl. In Big Air, she snatched the gold with her final run, here a competitor known as the Snow Princess again got her crowning glory.
“It has been two straight weeks of the most intense highs and lows I’ve ever experienced in my life,” she said. “It has changed my life forever. The second I landed the last 16 in Big Air I knew my life was never going to be the same. Even then I would never have imagined that I’d walk away with another silver and another gold.”
Such was her dominance, the rest of the field were left scrapping merely for the minor medals. Canadian Cassie Sharpe was the only other entrant to manage a score in the 90s, while her countrywoman Rachael Karker took the bronze.
For Atkin, it proved a tough final. An impressive fourth in qualifying, she lacked the same fluency come the final, falling on her opening two runs and too conservative on a third run which warranted 22 points less than Gu’s best.
“I was really glad to make it to the finals on my Olympic debut,” said Atkin. “I definitely wanted to land a good, clean run that was a bit bigger with some harder tricks but unfortunately I didn’t have the speed.”
Britain’s hopes in the men’s skicross ended prematurely when Ollie Davies was knocked out in his elimination heat. Falling back at the start, he caught up with the rest of the field but could not find a way through to end up fourth and out of the competition.
Winter Olympics medal table
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
|
1 |
Norway |
14 |
7 |
8 |
29 |
2 |
Germany |
10 |
7 |
5 |
22 |
3 |
USA |
8 |
8 |
5 |
21 |
4 |
China |
8 |
4 |
2 |
14 |
5 |
Sweden |
7 |
4 |
4 |
15 |
6 |
Austria |
6 |
7 |
4 |
17 |
7 |
Netherlands |
6 |
5 |
4 |
15 |
8 |
Switzerland |
6 |
1 |
5 |
12 |
9 |
ROC |
5 |
9 |
12 |
26 |
10 |
France |
4 |
7 |
2 |
13 |
- |
Great Britain |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
