Eileen Gu bags gold for China in Beijing Olympics
Teenager Eileen Gu of China won her first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, and the first gold for China in this year’s Winter Olympics, in the freeski big air competition, beating France's Tess Ledeux.
Fans across China even temporarily crashed the country's leading social media platform on Tuesday after Gu clinched the gold medal in her category.
The 18-year-old secured victory after nailing an improbable double cork 1620 on her final run to earn a 94.5, with a total score of 188.25to take the lead from France’s Tess Ledeux who took silver with a score of 187.50.
Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud won the bronze.
"That was the best moment of my life. The happiest moment, day, whatever -- of my life. I just cannot believe what just happened," said Gu after her win, according to the Olympic site.
Eileen was honored to have represented China in the Winter Olympics but also hailed the unifying power of sport and the support she had from her US rivals.
"That was the best moment of my life. The happiest moment, day, whatever -- of my life. I just cannot believe what just happened," said Gu after her win, according to the Olympic site.
Chinese authorities were quick to acknowledge Gu’s feat as a statement was released right after her win, congratulating their national athlete.
“We are glad to hear that Gu Ailing, a Beijing athlete, won a precious gold medal for the Chinese sports delegation and honored for the country with her perfect performance in the final of the women's freestyle ski platform at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games," said the Beijing Municipal Government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Beijing Committee, referring to Gu by her Chinese name.
Fans were quick to pour their congratulations to Gu on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo, where seven of the 10 top trending topics were all about Gu's win and left more than 90,000 comments in less than 30-minutes after her win.
Related hashtags, such as "Gu Ailing won the gold medal," received more than 300 million views within an hour -- eventually crashing the entire Weibo site due to the massive number of users.
Tags: #winterolympics, #ski, #sports