Eileen Gu returns to Olympic mountain in China and wins freeski debut in Shaun White’s Snow League

Eileen Gu returned to the mountain where she closed out her winning stay at the Beijing Olympics to capture the first Snow League title for freeskiing Saturday.

Gu, the 22-year-old who won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Games, won all six of her head-to-head showdowns against other skiers whose runs in this new format are judged against each other in a set of best-of-three contests that goes through three rounds.

For winning the first skiing event in Shaun White’s new Halfpipe league, Gu takes home a $50,000 first prize.

“I’m so happy we got to do the very first freeski Snow League here in China. It’s so special to share the podium with two of my teammates, as well,” Gu said.

Gu, who grew up in San Francisco but competes for her mother’s home country of China, was part of an all-China podium, with Kexin Zhang finishing second and Fanghui Li in third.

Part of Gu’s motivation to ski for China was to get more girls in the country involved in her sport – an effort she said is having an impact.

“For any pioneer of anything, the most important thing is that the people who follow will have the road a little bit easier than they had it,” Gu said. “My biggest hope is that any girl in the park, no matter what she looks like, where she’s from, how old she is, she never feels like she doesn’t belong.”

Next year in Italy at the Winter Olympics, Gu will be a favorite in all three freeski disciplines – halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. Three years ago in China, she won gold in halfpipe and big air and a silver in slopestyle.

Gu will return to the same Secret Garden snow park in Zhangjiakou next week for a World Cup event. Her first event at the Olympics is scheduled for Feb. 7.

In Friday’s snowboard contests, Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano of Japan won the men’s event and 14-year-old Patti Zhou of China won the women’s.

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