On-fire Eileen Gu claims second World Cup win in three days in Calgary
China's 18-year-old freeskier arrived at the Canada Olympic Park on the day of the competition on Thursday and still topped the podium, then won again on Saturday, underlining her Beijing 2022 Olympic credentials.
Freestyle Skiing
Eileen Gu emerged victorious in the halfpipe competition at the FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup event in Calgary on Saturday (1 January 2022).
The 18-year-old reigning world champion overcame a poor first run to score 92.80 points and claim victory ahead of local favourite Rachael Karker (89.40) and the USA's 17-year-old rising star Hanna Faulhaber (88.60).
Gu dealt best with swirling windy conditions and poor visibility to shred the halfpipe at the Calgary Snow Rodeo.
It was a third straight World Cup triumph for the California-born Gu who skis for China, and a second podium-topping performance in three days in Calgary.
"I'm super, super happy," she said afterwards.
"I've been saying that the biggest thing for me is getting competition experience, especially with people like Rachael (Karker) or Cassie (Sharpe) in this field, who I look up to so much.
"So, to just be in this field and do my best is what I always strive for."
With the final halfpipe competition of the 2021/22 World Cup season coming up next week in Mammoth, Gu has almost guaranteed herself a first crystal globe of her explosive young career, and she should lift it just a couple of short weeks out from the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
This latest win keeps Gu top of the World Cup halfpipe leaderboard on 300 points, Karker is second on 220, and Faulhaber third with 185.
On Thursday, Gu recorded a remarkable victory, also in Calgary, despite almost missing her flight to Canada and rocking up on the day of the competition.
"Yesterday I was in a different country with a lost passport and had no idea how I was going to get here," she said on Thursday.
"But I figured it out at the last moment, got to my flight, was the last person on my flight, forgot my phone charger, no mom, no coach... everything was just kind of chaotic."
She still found a way to win despite having just one 45-minute practice session in Alberta, and showed us a brand new combination - a left alley-oop flat 540 mute into a right alley-oop flat 540 safety - that we just might see at Beijing 2022.
The result, and the way that she did it, has only amped up talk of Gu as 'favourite' for gold in Beijing, the Games beginning on 4 February.
The Brendan Mackay-Alex Ferreira duel continues in Calgary
Meanwhile in the men's competition 24-year-old Canadian skier Brendan Mackay delighted his hometown fans when he came out on top scoring 93.40 points to win his second straight World Cup halfpipe event.
USA skier and PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist Alex Ferreira was second on 90.40 points, and another Calgary born high flier, Noah Bowman, rounded off the podium with 88 points.
Mackay's win keeps he and Ferreira neck-and-neck at the top of the men's halfpipe leaderboard right now on 260 points in a fascinating duel, while Noah Bowman is third on 150 points and another Canadian Simon D'Artois is fourth on 105 points.
Ferreira's second-place finish on Saturday was a carbon copy of Thursday's result, as he continues to pile up valuable points that should secure his Olympic spot for Beijing.
The 27-year-old Aspen Colorado athlete has looked sharp this season, racking up wins at the U.S. Grand Prix and the Dew Tour last month - both close to home at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
In fifth place is U.S. two-time Olympic champion David Wise on 100 points after he could only finish in eight place at the Snow Rodeo: his battle to qualify for a third straight Winter Games at Beijing 2022 continues.
Read more: David Wise - Why staying grounded means everything to me