Eileen Gu fans briefly crashed China’s leading social media sites platform on Tuesday, as 10s of millions hurried online to celebrate the adolescent freeski sensation winning her very first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

American-born Gu, 18, delved into the top placement at the women’s large air competitors with her 3rd run, scoring 94.5 with a 1620 and also a perfect landing– making her complete rating 188.25 in the event’s debut at the Winter Olympics.

She directly defeated France’s Tess Ledeux, who took silver with a rating of 187.50. Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud won the bronze.
” That was the most effective moment of my life. The happiest moment, day, whatever– of my life. I just can not believe what simply took place,” said Gu after her win, according to the Olympic site.

” Also if I didn’t land it, I felt it would send a message out to the globe and ideally urge even more women to damage their own limits,” she added. “That was my most significant goal entering into my last run. I advised myself to enjoy and also enjoy the moment and that, regardless of what, I was so happy to even have this possibility to also be below.”

Followers loaded the stands to cheer for Gu, that was birthed as well as increased in California but decided in 2019 to compete for China. Called the “snow princess” amongst her Chinese fans, Gu– currently a reigning world champion– has come to be the unofficial face of China’s Olympic ambitions, and also saw her appeal skyrocket in the lead-up to the Gamings.

Ledeux, who had been leading the competition till the last run when she overbalanced on the touchdown, sank to the ground in tears after the outcome. Gu and also Gremaud both knelt on the snowy flooring to console her, pulling Ledeux into a hug and massaging her back.

Gu’s triumph stimulated wondrous scenes online. The subject dominated searches on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo, where 7 of the 10 leading trending subjects were everything about Gu’s win. Fans on her Weibo, where she has 2.6 million followers, left greater than 90,000 remarks in less than 30-minutes after her win.

Associated hashtags, such as “Gu Ailing won the gold medal,” got more than 300 million sights within a hr– at some point collapsing the entire Weibo site as a result of the substantial variety of customers.

Chinese authorities were also uncommonly quick to congratulate Gu. “We rejoice to hear that Gu Ailing, a Beijing professional athlete, won a precious gold medal for the Chinese sports delegation as well as honored for the country with her perfect performance in the last of the females’s freestyle ski system at the Beijing Winter Season Olympic Gamings,” stated the Beijing Municipal Government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Beijing Board, referring to Gu by her Chinese name.

Gu’s papa is American and also her mother is Chinese. She grew up skiing on the slopes of Lake Tahoe, and had reached her first World Mug podium by the age of 15.

Though she switched to compete for China, it’s unclear whether she relinquished her American citizenship– usually a requirement for Chinese naturalization, because the country does not enable twin citizenship. Gu has never openly discussed the standing of her American citizenship, though a short article on the official Olympic site described her “twin nationality” in January.

At a news conference after her win on Tuesday, press reporters asked Gu several times if she was still an US person. She evaded responding to each time, claiming only that she felt American in the US and also Chinese in China.

Since joining China’s nationwide group, Gu’s face has actually been sprayed throughout publication covers and also billboards in the country. She has landed numerous sponsorships and brand name deals, as well as is quick becoming one of China’s hottest young celebrities– though her newfound success has actually additionally come with enhanced analysis from movie critics in the West.

Besides her snowboarding job, she’s additionally a model, brand name ambassador, as well as was accepted into Stanford University, which she plans to go to in the autumn.

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Resources: CNN

Last Updated: 8 Feb 2022