EmailPrintLIVIGNO, Italy -- By taking chances, Eileen Gu is building a sport. She's winning medals.Yet on a sunny Sunday at the Olympics where she defended her title on the halfpipe, maybe the best prize of all was knowing her grandma would be proud.That's why her tears flowed freely.Not long after the victory gave her a record-breaking third Olympic gold medal in freeskiing, Gu learned her grandmother, Guozhen Feng, had died."She was a steamship," Gu said. "This woman commanded life, and she grabbed it by the reins, and she made it into what she wanted it to be."It's the way Gu, the 22-year-old -- born in America but competing for her mother's homeland of China -- likes to approach skiing, school, life and everything she touches."She inspired me so much," Gu said. "The last time I saw her before I came to the Olympics, she was very sick, so I knew that this was a possibility. I didn't probably say that I was going to win, but I did promise her that I was going to be brave. She's been brave."Gu knows she has naysayers and knows what to say to themGu has had to exhibit a certain amount of bravery, too, over her young life.There's bravery on the mountain, where she puts her health (and her life) on the line with every jump. Then, there's the will of steel she needs to deal with her world off the slopes.Barely a day has passed at either of her two Olympics when Gu doesn't get asked about the country she competes for almost as often as her freeskiing.Not a day passes, either, where she doesn't lean into the same message she's been delivering for years: "If people disagree with me, if they have other skill sets, which I'm sure they do, then I encourage them to direct it elsewhere," she said. "To make the world better in their own way."At her post-victory news conference, the well-spoken Stanford student handled all the questions -- about geopolitics, her brain power, the future of skiing -- head-on, but always bringing the conversation back to the reason she has captivated an audience in a sport that doesn't always do that."The difficulty of competing in three events, making finals in three events," she said. "I had to compete six times. I kind of liken it to a marathon, with the pace of a 100-meter dash. ... I took a big risk in trusting myself, and I'm glad that I did."By trusting, and winning, Gu has become the most decorated freeskier in the short history of the sport at the Olympics.Beyond the medals, she is growing the sport. She cited a Chinese government study saying more than 300 million people in China have tried snow sports for the first time since she captured her three medals there at the last Olympics."There are girls in China whose lives are going to be touched by the beautiful and wonderful power of sport," Gu said. "That, in and of itself, is absolutely measured impact that I think I had always wanted."A life after skiing focused on 'global beneficial impact'Asked what her life after skiing might entail, Gu stayed with the broad theme of "global beneficial impact" but said her pillars right now remain skiing, sports and fashion. She'll be at a fashion show in Milan this week.Things could change down the road."I think it's more assessing your individual skill set and trying to say, 'OK, what is the way that I can as a person do the most good in the world?'" Gu said. "Right now, I'm young. I'm energetic."Competitors catching up?She'll need it.The example she has set for skiing has made this a better sport. Four years ago, when Gu closed out those Olympics with a gold on the halfpipe, there was a tinge of resignation among the other skiers."A machine," Canada's runner-up Cassie Sharpe said back then.And American Carly Margulies agreed that Gu was skiing at "a level that's pretty unattainable for a lot of us."Now, there's a sense they're catching up. Britain's bronze medalist Zoe Atkin actually jumped higher out of the halfpipe than Gu. China's Li Fanghui finished second and had she tried six tricks instead of five, who knows what might have happened?"She's a great skier, and she raises the level for everyone else," said Canada's Amy Fraser, who finished fourth and is the lone skier to beat Gu over the past four years. "But she's not unbeatable."In a way, that's exactly what Gu wants."If I went to a middle school and beat everybody at freestyle, it's not exciting for anybody, right?" she explained.Once her news conference was over, she exited out a side door, then climbed a grandstand for a few more pictures, a few more hugs. Her grandma didn't see this victory. But Gu couldn't have done it without her."That's why I keep referring to this theme of betting on myself and being brave and taking risks," Gu said. "It actually goes back to that promise I made my grandma. I'm really happy that I was able to uphold that and hopefully do her proud."
