Great Winter Olympic rivalries: Ailing (Eileen) Gu and Kelly Sildaru in freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing is lucky enough to have one potential all-time great, let alone two of them at the same time. Ailing (Eileen) Gu, 18, from the People’s Republic of China and Estonian Kelly Sildaru, 19, are both busy making history at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

It isn't their first Olympic experience though, since both competed – and won gold medals – at the Youth Olympic Winter Games Lausanne 2020.

Now with two competitions already in the bag, Gu has won gold in big air and silver in slopestyle, with Sildaru picking up bronze in the latter.

But who has the best chance of topping the podium when the Beijing 2022 halfpipe competition begins on Thursday 17 February at the Genting Snow Park?

Find out more about their origins, personalities, breakthroughs, latest results and mutual respect for one another.

Pride of their nations

One characteristic shared by Gu and Sildaru is their position as the biggest rising sports star of their nations.

Sildaru is the most popular Estonian sportsperson on Instagram, with 106k followers. “It’s really nice to have your country supporting you, but sometimes it can be hard if people know you well and recognise you on the street,” said the skier.

The main difference is that Gu, who holds dual citizenship, deals with expectations from two nations. “When I'm in the U.S., I'm American, but when I'm in China, I'm Chinese,” she told ESPN.com. “My whole message is that I want to make sports international."

Both athletes also enjoy their life away from the snow. Gu occasionally works as a model, while Sildaru is a vlogger on YouTube.

“I think it’s really important to have a well-rounded life, and to be able to do multiple different things. I enjoy doing it - I love it. I went to Paris Fashion Week in 2019 which was probably the best week of my life… no offence, skiing!” said Gu.

The breakthrough of Sildaru and Gu

Sildaru was the one to break out first, winning her first X Games gold medal at 13, the youngest to ever do it and the first from Estonia. She was also the first woman to land a Switch 1260° Mute and a 1440° in competition.

Considered the one to beat ahead of PyeongChang 2018, Sildaru suffered a ligament injury that kept her out of the event.

She came back strong, with the slopestyle title in Lausanne 2020. Sildaru is a five-time X Games champion, four-time Dew Tour winner and the 2019 world champion in halfpipe.

“Kelly’s so interesting to me because there was so much visibility into her as an athlete before she even competed,” said American skier Jen Hudak to Forbes. “Being a good skier is so different from being a good competitor, and she has surpassed my expectations there for sure.”

When it comes to Gu, she has become used to winning three medals per event, doing it at Lausanne 2020, the 2021 X Games and the 2021 World Championships – with two golds in each of them.

If any proof were needed that she's at the top of her form, Gu posted in November 2021 a video landing a double cork 1440°, becoming the first woman to do so.

In good form before and during Beijing 2022

Gu dominated the halfpipe this season, winning all four World Cup events and taking her first crystal globe. Sildaru, on the other hand, led the slopestyle chase to the globe.

“I’m really so stoked,” Sildaru said in Mammoth Mountain after beating Gu. “My baggage got lost on my way here and I haven’t done any training, only the warmups before the qualies and the finals. So I’m happy that I was able to put a good run down.”

However, at Beijing 2022, slopestyle gold went to Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, with Gu coming second and Siladru grabbing bronze.

In the big air competition, things weren't even close. Gu was the toast of her nation as she soared to gold, with Sildaru finishing a lowly seventeenth.

It sets things up nicely for the final freestyle skiing competition of Beijing 2022. Can the favourite Gu write another golden chapter in her Beijing fairytale, or will there be a Sildaru-penned plot twist along the way? One thing's for sure, you won't want to miss a moment as all eyes turn to the twists and tricks of the halfpipe event.

A rivalry is about respect

Win or not, the last thing either of these two will lose is mutual respect.

Since their Youth Winter Olympic Games days, Gu and Sildaru have shown that the most important aspect of a rivalry is admiring one another.

“Before my last run, I was super nervous,” said Gu in Lausanne 2020. “Kelly came up behind me and said ‘hey, I want you to land this’. That’s the camaraderie we have. She’s as good a person as she is a skier. I’ve looked up to her since I was eight. To be just half a point behind her was amazing.”

The sentiment remains to this day. “Honestly, today was all about having fun, pushing myself, pushing the sport,” said Gu after the Dew Tour in December 2021. “Being just the tiniest part of that is always my biggest goal. Being able to be out here with Kelly [Sildaru], with Cassie [Sharpe] especially, is always really inspiring.”

The freestyle skiing competition in Beijing 2022 concludes with the halfpipe qualifiers on 17 February, followed a day later by the gold medal-deciding finals.