Eileen Gu Claps Back at Reporter Over ‘Two Golds Lost or Two Silvers Gained’ Narrative; Video Goes Viral

China’s Eileen Gu won silver in both the women's freestyle skiing slopestyle as well as big air, adding to her three medals in Beijing

Eileen Gu Claps Back at Reporter Over ‘Two Golds Lost or Two Silvers Gained’ Narrative; Video Goes Viral

Eileen Gu (Image via Imagn Images)

In Short
  • Eileen Gu defended her silver medal finishes, rejecting the "two golds lost" narrative as a ridiculous perspective.
  • She emphasized the difficulty of winning multiple Olympic medals, highlighting her status as the most decorated female freestyle skier.
  • Gu is set to compete in her final event, the women's half pipe, at the Milan Cortina Games, attempting three freestyle disciplines.

Critics are rather unkind; an athlete who has achieved the peaks of a sport is expected to dazzle and win every other time, even a second place amongst a strong fray of competitors is considered a bust. Well, this mentality did not fly with the American-born Chinese skier Eileen Gu in a press conference following her silver medal finish in the women’s big air.

In an interaction with the media, a reporter questioned whether Gu considered the “two silvers gained or two golds lost?” She immediately broke into a snicker before framing a bold new angle on the “gold or bust” perspective.

The 22-year-old, a five-time Olympic medalist, pointed out that she’s the most decorated female freestyle skier, which should answer the reporter’s question. Gu said:

Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder, because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right? And so the two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think it’s kind of a ridiculous perspective to take.

She’s added that she’s content with being best of her abilities and doing things that she had never done before on the Olympic stage and otherwise.

In Milan Cortina 2026, Eileen Gu won two silvers in the women’s freeski slopestyle and big air behind Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland and Megan Oldham of Canada. The two silvers joined her three-medal haul in Beijing four years ago. Gu finished the tournament with two golds, big air and half pipe, and a silver in slopestyle.

She’s scheduled to return for her final competition, the women’s half pipe. She’s the only woman attempting three disciplines in freestyle skiing at the Milan Cortina Games.

Su Yiming and Xu Mengtao add two gold medals to China’s medal tally

The Chinese opened their gold medal account on Wednesday with Su Yiming taking the men’s snowboard slopestyle gold. Yiming, on account of a dominant start in the first run with 82.41, held on to the score to win his second career gold.

Xu Mengtao (Image via Reuters)
Xu Mengtao (Image via Reuters)

Yiming, who won a silver medal in the discipline four years ago had qualified to the final in the eighth position. In the final, his strong first run was enough to edge out strong competition from Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa and Milan Cortina’s big air silver medalist Ryoma Kimata. Yiming had previously won a bronze in the big air behind Kimata.

Yiming, now a four-time Olympic medalist, was overcome with emotion on his final run as well as on the podium.

Later in the day, Xu Mengtao added one more gold to their tally with her striking win in the women’s aerials. Mengtao qualified for the finals with the fifth-best score in qualification. She later advanced to the second round of the finals with the fourth-best score in Final 1. In the medal run, she posted a 112.90 jump, her best score in the tournament to defend her Beijing gold.

China has been competing in the Winter Olympics since 1980 in Lake Placid. After six editions, China first medaled a gold in 2002 with Yang Yang picking up two golds in women’s 500m and 1000m short track speed skating. They have since won at least one gold medal in each of the last Winter Olympics, including a best performance of nine golds in Beijing.

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