Ailing (Eileen) Gu: Playing piano helped me win freeski big air gold medal at home Games in Beijing
China's freestyle skiing star won the title in her much-anticipated Winter Olympic debut, the big air at Beijing 2022, and says that music and rhythm played a crucial part.
Freestyle Skiing
Ailing (Eileen) Gu credited 9 years of piano playing for her gold medal win at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
The 18-year-old freestyle skiing prodigy from China claimed the gold medal in the women's freeski big air on Tuesday (8 February), performing a 1620 on her final run to claim the win.
"I've never done it before, but I actually felt pretty confident going into it. I've played piano for 9 years, so I am very attuned to a sense of rhythm," Gu shared in her post-event press conference.
"I think of all my tricks as a rhythm, and music. The wind in my ears, the speed in my turn as I spin, it speeds up. There's a change in tempo.
"I was visualizing that. More than anything I felt it was an opportunity to represent myself, and this message that I've always had to break my own boundaries. It's something that I wanted to show the world."
"I was guaranteed a podium spot when I dropped in, I was only 0.25 points behind Mathilde (Gremaud) and I was thinking, 'Should I improve on my previous one and go for the sliver or should I whip out this random trick I’d never done before and go for gold?'
Gu added that she hoped others would be inspired by her performance, saying "If I can do it, they can do it."
She also praised her fellow competitors including silver medallist Tess Ledeux
"I won because of them. They have made me the skier I am."
Affectionately known as the 'Snow Princess', Gu is also the champion from the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Lausanne 2020, and before the final in Beijing took time out to speak exclusively with Olympics.com about life in the athletes village and how meditation and piano playing have helped her. Read more here.
When is Ailing (Eileen) Gu competing in freestyle skiing at Beijing 2022?
Gu will be competing in three freeski events at the Games: big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle.
She'll next move up to the mountains for the next event on her agenda, which will be the women's freeski slopestyle qualifiers at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou on Sunday 13 February at 10:00 Beijing time, with the finals the next day starting at 9:30.
Lastly, the women's freeski halfpipe qualifiers are scheduled for Thursday 17 February at 9:30 Beijing time with the finals the next day beginning at 9:30.