China's freeski icon Gu Ailing successfully defended her Olympic gold medal in the women's halfpipe at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Sunday.
Gu delivered a final run of 94.75 points to seal victory, having already posted the highest score of the competition with a 94.00 in her second run.
Gu's first run was marred by a landing error on her initial 900-degree spin, causing her to lose speed and momentum. She bounced back on her second run, landing back-to-back 900s cleanly and executing the remainder of her routine without fault to move to the top of the standings before improving further in the final round.
In the past year, she got quite a few injuries during training and competitions.
To learn to be with them, accept them and overcome them is a necessary ability for an outstanding athlete, Gu said.
"Injuries are part of sports. This year is the year of Winter Olympics. Recently, many athletes have been getting injured, but at the same time, many young newcomers have made breakthroughs. So I think we will face up to great challenges this year," she said.
The gold medal adds to Gu's Olympic resume, marking her third career Winter Olympic title following two golds at Beijing 2022. It is also her third medal at this year’s Games, having previously taken two silvers in slopestyle and big air.
It is more difficult to defend the Olympic championship than winning it for the first time, as more and more newcomers have been emerging and technical difficulties have been evolving, she admitted.
However, Gu said she believes it means continuous improvement for the sports.
"The first competition is much easier than the 10th or the 100th. Of course, there will be many new young athletes -- I'm only 22 years old, so they may be not that much younger than me -- I mean, those new comers. At the same time, I think all the female athletes have improved themselves over the past four years, which is what I expect, because my greatest hope for this sport is to get stronger year by year, so that we can get better and better in the future," she said.
China's Gu Ailing defends Olympic freeski halfpipe title at Milan-Cortina
