--- title: Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism description: Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history canonical: https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/ author: Sean Gregory article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-02-17T01:37:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T08:14:20.476Z article:section: Sports og:title: Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism og:description: Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history og:url: https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f862ce018ee2ad/6998cf48f1b082919f6f2425/GettyImages-2262010060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7994 og:image:height: 4497 og:image:alt: Freestyle Skiing - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 10 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism twitter:description: Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f862ce018ee2ad/6998cf48f1b082919f6f2425/GettyImages-2262010060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Olympian Eileen Gu, Freestyle Skier on Being a Third Culture Kid [Watch (HLS stream): Olympian Eileen Gu, Freestyle Skier on Being a Third Culture Kid](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/b6sQ7Y2f.m3u8) (3:03)  _Published 2026-02-17. Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history_  by [Sean Gregory / Livigno](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory / Livigno Senior Correspondent Feb 17, 2026 1:37 AM UTC  by [Sean Gregory / Livigno](https://time.com/author/sean-gregory/)  ## Sean Gregory / Livigno Senior Correspondent Feb 17, 2026 1:37 AM UTC Like other highly-publicized athletes at these [Milano Cortina Olympic Games](https://time.com/tag/2026-milan-and-cortina-dampezzo-olympics/), freeskier [Eileen Gu](https://time.com/7355691/eileen-gu-interview-2026-olympics/), who represents China, had hopes of winning everything. Many fans expect her, and these other global superstars, to do so. And like [Lindsey Vonn](https://time.com/7372933/lindsey-vonn-olympics-crash/), [Chloe Kim](https://time.com/7378341/chloe-kim-2026-winter-olympics-snowboarding-halfpipe-silver-medal/),[ Ilia Malinin,](https://time.com/7378663/olympics-ilia-malinin-free-skate-fall-2026/) and [Mikaela Shiffrin](https://time.com/7377391/mikaela-shiffrin-olympics-2026-combined-slalom/), Gu hasn’t. On Monday night in Livigno, Gu landed a left-side double cork 1260—three-and-a-half rotations and a couple of off-axis flips—under pressure in her third and final run of the big air competition, earning enough points to win her second silver medal of these Olympics. But she didn’t defend her big air title from Beijing; Canada’s [Megan Oldham ](https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7092799)won the gold. At just 22 and with five Olympic medals to her name, however, Gu now owns more Olympic medals than any other female freestyle skier ever. But she still hasn’t finished first in Italy. After big air, a reporter asked Gu if she views her performance at these Olympics as two silver medals gained, or two golds lost. In interactions with journalists, Gu is unfailingly polite but often returns to familiar talking points. She chose to represent China over the U.S., where she was born and raised, in order to inspire young girls there to try skiing. (There’s evidence her goal is being realized). She touts the unifying power of sport. All well and good. But here, Gu came back with bite. “I'm the most decorated female freeskier in history,” Gu responded. “I think that's an answer in and of itself. How do I say this? 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.” Gu’s a lighting rod on social media. While her suiting up for China hasn’t stirred as much chatter as it did four years ago, when the Olympics were in Beijing, critics are still calling her out: former NBA player [Enes Kantor Freedom](https://time.com/6282974/turkey-elections-erdogan-wrongdoings-column/), for example, recently called her a [“traitor” on X. ](https://x.com/EnesFreedom?lang=en) On the flip side, her fans come out in full force. At the big air landing, groups of fans wave Gu signs and Chinese flags. A trio of her Stanford friends showed up to cheer her on; Gu is an international relations major at the school, and plans on returning, as a junior, after the Games. One student didn’t want to be named, since he was blowing off an electrical engineering final to be in the Alps. She has a strong support system. A world swirls around her. Supporters sought out selfies after she won her silver, and a volunteer even asked her mom, Yan, who was wearing a panda hat, for a picture. (Yan was born in China and grew up there before coming to the United States: Gu spent summers in Beijing as a child). So whether people agree with Gu—two silvers here are a laudable accomplishment—or view her as crafting a favorable narrative that moves the goalposts—she had visions of bettering her performance in Beijing, and sweeping all three freestyle golds—they’ll be talking nonetheless. She was so stoked about landing that last big air trick, she says, because she only learned it last week. She raised her arms after striking the landing, and shouted “What the heck!” at one of her coaches, as if she couldn’t believe what just happened. She thought seriously about skipping big air altogether at the Olympics. Gu won her slopestyle silver on Feb. 9, and her strongest event, halfpipe, starts with qualifying on Feb. 19\. “My mom called a team meeting the day after slopestyle, and she was like, ‘All right, we got the medal. Let's move on to halfpipe.’ And I was like, ‘Whaaat?’ I thought my jumps were pretty good. Maybe we could do something nice in big air.” Yan was concerned that the big air finals were held on the same night as a halfpipe training: Gu even planned to hop over to halfpipe for some reps if she didn’t medal in big air. And Gu hasn’t competed in big air since the Beijing Olympics. Between school and sponsor commitments and other competitions, and tending to her thriving modeling career, Gu just hasn’t had time for big air. But after she did a practice run on the big air ramp in Livigno, she was all in. “She said, ‘I love it,’” says Yan. “‘We're in the Olympics.’” The opportunity to fly was just too good to pass up. And Gu still has one more shot at that elusive—in Italy—gold. Oldham said she was going to celebrate her gold by going dancing. Gu would not be doing the same for her silver, as happy as she was with that prize. “Go have a night,” she told Oldham. “I’m going to be visualizing my halfpipe run. I’m going to lie in bed and think about my tricks.” ## Transcript Being Chinese and growing up in the US has for so long been a massive part of who I am and something I'm so proud of. I think I've kind of taken it upon myself from a very young age, almost subconsciously, to be a cultural bridge. And I mean that truly in the most innocent and honest and joyous way. Maybe you grow up in a place and you absorb a lot of its cultural traditions, its education style, maybe its language, but at the same time, your experience is also colored by your home environment. And maybe that's a different language and different foods and different traditions and customs and ways of communication. And so kind of bringing that all together, you merge and form a new culture. And that would be a third culture. No matter where I go. I don't feel I'm an outsider. I actually feel like I am where I try to be as much a part in the most authentic sense of that space as I can be. And then when I leave it, I really try to take with me the parts that speak to me and keep them in my heart forever. There is no day in the life because every single day is by definition different. But I can give an example if that's helpful. Two days ago I was in New Zealand. I was training on snow because it's reverse season, so I finished skiing, drove straight to the airport in my full ski gear, changed at the airport in five minutes, packed it into a suitcase that I had half packed and so I put it into the empty half, zipped it up, sent it into the bag check, flew from New Zealand to China. And on that flight I. I don't know, read 100 pages of my book, wrote a couple pages to be published, and then slept the rest of the time. Landed at five in the morning, started shooting at six, shot ten hours, and then ran ten miles afterwards, and then went to sleep. So that would be a day in the life. But I don't know if I've ever done that day before and I might not do it again. But I think the one thing that stays consistent is the tempo. One of my good friends is a park builder, and I've known him since I was ten, maybe younger when I first started skiing in China. So 8 or 9. And, um, he actually told me last year that in his park that he's been maintaining for the last 10 to 12 years, he has literally gotten to see the demographic shift. It used to be me as the only young girl in the park, and then a bunch of middle aged guys, probably. And now he calls it the Eileen effect, where the park is full of little girls and they're all on skis. It's so special to see supporters. I don't really call them my fans in Chinese. I call them like my friends, uh, because my my classic line is they're not my fans, they're my friends because I want to do it with them and I don't want to lead them, but they make these massive banners and flags and my school logo. And at the end of the day, when I have the victory, um, it's really special to share it with, with my friends at the bottom of the corral. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/"},"headline":"Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism","datePublished":"2026-02-17T01:37:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T08:14:20.476Z","description":"Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history","url":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/","keywords":["2026 Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f862ce018ee2ad/6998cf48f1b082919f6f2425/GettyImages-2262010060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sean Gregory / Livigno"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f862ce018ee2ad/6998cf48f1b082919f6f2425/GettyImages-2262010060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Freestyle Skiing - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 10","caption":"Freestyle Skiing - Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 10","creditText":"Hannah Peters/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2026-milan-and-cortina-dampezzo-olympics/","name":"2026 Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/","name":"Eileen Gu Doesn’t Appreciate Your Silver Medal Cynicism"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Olympian Eileen Gu, Freestyle Skier on Being a Third Culture Kid","description":"Gu became the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/b6sQ7Y2f/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-02-17T15:39:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/b6sQ7Y2f.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/","duration":"PT3M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/7379054/eileen-gu-big-air-silver-medal/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```