By Winni Zhou and Mari Saito
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) -Eating a pork bun after winning silver in the women’s freeski slopestyle final on Tuesday, home favourite Eileen Gu was already looking to the halfpipe contest later this week, where she’ll again aim for gold.
Gu, 18, told a throng of reporters that she had “no other time to eat” as she ate a bun out of a plastic container handed to her by her mother.
The San Francisco-born athlete, who competed in the U.S. team as a child but switched to compete for China in 2019, has been juggling training and competing in a trifecta of events at the Beijing Games.
Gu, who won the Big Air gold last week, said she was feeling “really good” ahead of the halfpipe event, which begins with qualifications on Thursday, though she was struggling to find time to practise.
“I’m probably going to miss this practice too right now but hopefully I can get into the pipe for a little bit,” she said.
The teenager said she was particularly looking forward to the halfpipe because her grandmother was arriving to cheer her on.
“My grandma is coming out today, so she’s going to watch me compete in the halfpipe, which means the world to me,” Gu told the reporters after taking a bite from her bun.
“She’s never watched me compete before, so hopefully I can put on a good show for her,” she said.
Gu has described her grandmother, who was a basketball player at university, as a “fiercely confident” woman, who instilled in her a deeply competitive streak.
Gu said she was going to make a little time later on Tuesday to celebrate China’s traditional Lantern Festival, which is the 15th day of the lunisolar Chinese calendar and the end of the Lunar New Year celebration.
Speaking Mandarin with a thick Beijing accent, Gu said she hoped to eat “yuan xiao”, sweet sesame sticky rice balls for the special day.
“Her arrival today is also a way of celebrating the Lantern Festival,” a smiling Gu said of her grandmother.
Now the face of the Beijing Olympics, Gu is no stranger to multi-tasking. She already juggles a professional skiing career with modelling for dozens of Chinese and international brands and is set to go to Stanford University later this year.
“I go into every contest hoping to win but never expecting to win … I’m here to win and I’ll do my best,” she said.
The women’s freeski halfpipe final is scheduled for Friday.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Mari Saito,Editing by Robert Birsel)
