Ailing (Eileen) Gu: One down, two to go with gold at the freestyle ski slopestyle final at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games next up?
She’ll have to get past Kelly Sildaru first after the Estonian ski star topped qualifying on Monday 14 February.
Sildaru’s second run scored 86.15 to top the charts ahead of Norway’s Johanne Killi in second with a big second run that scored 86.00.
Gu was third with her best 79.38 run, after a disappointing first run that had her on 57.28 and qualification in peril she needed a big Run 2 and delivered.
But that won’t worry her, it was a similar story in her historic big air gold medal win where she didn’t top the qualies either.
It’s all about the final.
Eileen Gu vs. Kelly Sildaru: A great skiing rivalry
Freeski superstar Gu has already made history for China by winning the big air gold medal, and has emerged as one of the biggest stars in Beijing.
She has her eye on a truly historic feat as she aims to win three gold medals and sweep the freeski titles in Beijing.
That’s a lot of pressure for an 18-year-old, but she told Olympics.com that she has ways of dealing with it including piano, composing her own songs, meditation and long showers to ‘stay in her own head’.
It’s been a bit of a longer wait for the ski slopestyle finals too because of the weather but now with the two rescheduled qualification runs done, the picture is a little clearer.
“It went super well,” the leader Sildaru told Olympics.com after qualifying.
“I guess I qualify for the finals which is super nice,” she said before confirmation that she finished in top spot. Temperatures dropped overnight and in the morning qualifying it was cold. Like -17C cold.
“It’s actually a bit hard to ski with that cold weather because I’m not used to it. So, my body’s always cold,” Sildaru said.
Managing to overcome it and now she stands in the way of Gu’s threepeat.
The American-born Chinese skier Gu’s greatest slopestyle rival coming into Beijing was Kelly Sildaru, who grew up in a mountain-less country.
And it’s a rivalry that goes back a bit. In 2020 Sildaru claimed slopestyle gold at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lausanne, Switzerland when she was still just 17 ahead of Gu who took home silver that day.
Sildaru stopped Gu from completing a freeski gold medal triple at Lausanne 2020, can she do it again in Beijing?
Gu is the reigning slopestyle world champ and won the most recent X Games title too, while Sildaru has won both slopestyle World Cups she’s entered this season – including the Mammoth event when she bettered Gu with a spectacular showing.
The Olympic showdown is on.
Women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle final: Stars to watch
Beyond Gu and Sildaru there’s plenty to look out for, not least high-wire walking Norwegian Johanne Killi who qualified above Gu in second place.
At 24 Killi has been on the scene a while and has five X Games podiums to her name in both big air and slopestyle.
USA shredder Maggie Voisin was fourth behind Gu on Monday with 72.78 points and with two X Games slopestyle titles to her name is a definite threat.
Look out too for Anastasia Tatalina (ROC) and her spinny double cork 1260s in the final too, she qualified in fifth.
And a surprise could possibly come from Kirsty Muir representing Great Britain, who qualified in sixth.
Tess Ledeux took second behind Gu in big air and will bring a big challenge to slopestyle too after her eight-place finish in the qualifiers.
Sarah Hoefflin is the reigning slopestyle champ from four years ago but we won’t see her in the final after a 20th place finish.
PyeongChang silver medallist Mathilde Gremaud did make it though, grabbing the final 12th place qualifying spot.
The USA’s Marin Hamill also made it through in 7th place and could make a push for the podium, while Canadian hope Olivia Asselin will fly the flag solo in the final after an unfortunate injury in training ruled out Elena Gaskell.
Who qualified for the freeski slopestyle Olympic final at Beijing 2022?
Here are all twelve qualifiers and their top score:
- Kelly Sildaru (EST) 86.15
- Johanne Killi (NOR) 86.00
- Ailing Eileen Gu (CHN) 79.38
- Maggie Voisin (USA) 72.78
- Anastasia Tatalina (ROC) 72.03
- Kirsty Muir (GBR) 70.11
- Marin Hamill (USA) 69.43
- Silvia Bertagna (ITA) 68.90
- Tess Ledeux (FRA) 68.13
- Katie Summerhayes (GBR) 66.56
- Olivia Asselin (CAN) 64.68
- Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) 63.46
What is freestyle skiing slopestyle?
New to freeski slopestyle?
Basically, this discipline involves skiers navigating down a course individually, performing a variety of tricks on a mix of rails and jumps.
Courses usually have six features — three jumps and three sections of rails.
You get all the fun of slides, spins and rails with the dramatic skyscraping tricks of big air jumps.
Don’t miss it!