Eileen Gu is Even Higher Than Her Medals Counsel – An Outdated Faculty Gymnastics Weblog

Should you watched even only a tiny little bit of NBC’s programming of the 2022 Winter Olympics, you’ll have seen the community fawn over Freestyle Skier Eileen Gu who was born and grew up in america, however represents China. Eileen was the right star for the 2022 Olympics. As a result of her background, she appealed to followers in each China and america. However most significantly, Eileen Gu was a confirmed winner.

Eileen might have gained two Olympic gold medals on the 2022 Winter Olympics and was one of the vital broadly promoted athletes amongst the media throughout Beijing-2022. However regardless of that, I’m of the idea that Eileen Gu is extremely underrated. Regardless of how loopy it sounds to explain a 2x Olympic gold medalist who’s now a family title as “underrated,” I’m of the idea that even Olympic superstars can nonetheless fall sufferer to having the importance of what they achieved go largely unrealized to most people at massive.

On this article I’m going to speak about how Eileen Gu’s efficiency in 2022 was much better than the outcomes really recommend.

She competed in three occasions

Freestyle Snowboarding technically has six occasions within the Olympics, however the sport is much simpler to grasp in the event you deal with three of these occasions (Huge Air, Slopestyle, and Halfpipe) as a separate breakaway sport. I personally want calling them the “2nd era” occasions. These occasions are totally different from the remainder of freestyle snowboarding in that they’re comparatively new to the Olympic motion having been added to this system from 2014-2022. In addition they have a special origin having been created because of the direct affect of snowboarding occasions and the X-Video games. The older or “historic” Freestyle Snowboarding occasions emerged from inside the Worldwide Ski Federation and its World Championships.

However what makes the 2nd era occasions most unusual is that they don’t make the most of a clock. Earlier than their introduction in 2014, each current freestyle snowboarding occasion had a racing part to it the place athletes weren’t solely attempting to carry out troublesome expertise to impress the judges, however snowboarding down the course as quick as attainable to additional enhance their level complete with a low time.

The 2nd era freestyle snowboarding occasions are extra like gymnastics the place the target is solely on the acrobatic stunts being carried out within the air. However the single greatest cause 2nd era freestyle snowboarding ought to be considered its personal separate spinoff is how interchangeable these three occasions are. Huge Air, Slopestyle, and Halfpipe have achieved a level of overlap with one another as these occasions usually entice the identical athletes. One thing that’s exceptional within the conventional Freestyle Snowboarding occasions.

Whereas it might be correct to say athletes do strive their hand at multiple occasion within the 2nd-generation occasions, it solely happens in restricted circumstances. For instance, Huge Air and Slopestyle usually have almost similar begin lists, however most contributors in halfpipe not often add a second occasion to their program. And nobody, if ever, is loopy sufficient to compete in all three occasions without delay.

To compete in three totally different occasions (Huge Air, Slopestyle, and Halfpipe) requires dividing your restricted coaching time throughout three totally different occasions, in addition to taking over a big bodily load that requires further endurance. This may be a formidable job even in gymnastics, but when a gymnast needs to strive bars, beam, and flooring, all she has to do is prepare inside a health club the place every bit of apparatus is not any additional than 30 second stroll away.

Huge Air, Slopestyle, and Halfpipe requires three separate buildings that solely probably the most elite coaching places on this planet present entry to all three sorts of services in a single setting. And until they’re serviced by the very same chairlift, it isn’t the identical convivence as a gymnast who’s coaching bars and beam. And keep in mind, this can be a winter sport the place the services are solely accessible in the course of the Winter months of the 12 months.

In your entire ladies’s competitors, just one different athlete was loopy sufficient to strive competing in all three occasions alongside Eileen Gu. The athlete in query was the outstanding Kelly Sildaru who I as soon as described “probably the most gifted athlete in your entire 2022 Video games.” The reason is, her junior profession was legendary and Kelly was a baby prodigy from the age of seven. Sildaru’s skill to look in all three occasions was a sign of her immense expertise, and Eileen being the one different athlete to hitch her is why I maintain the duo in excessive regard.

I anticipated each Kelly and Eileen to dominate the 2022 Olympics, however I didn’t count on their “rivalry” to be so lopsided. Each athletes competed in all three occasions, however the outcomes have been as adopted.

Title	Huge Air	Slopestyle	Halfpipe
Eileen Gu
Kelly Sildaru	seventeenth (DNQ)		4th Place

Not solely was it nearly exceptional for an athlete to compete in all three occasions, however Eileen merely qualifying to the finals in all three occasions was an absurd accomplishment in itself. Not one competitor within the subject appeared within the finals of all three occasions. Eileen Gu was already working at a regular that nobody had but achieved, after which she raised these requirements even greater by successful a medal in every of the three occasions.

She nearly swept the gold medals

Eileen Gu went gold-silver-gold in her three occasions. However her silver medal was almost a gold medal. Eileen Gu misplaced the gold medal in Slopestyle by solely 0.33 factors. To place that in perspective, the hole between silver and bronze was 2.83 factors whereas the hole between bronze and 4th place was 6.55 factors. All that was standing in the best way between Eileen Gu and a complete sweep in her class of occasions was one of many closet margin of defeats in your entire 2022 Video games.

Not solely had Eileen Gu narrowly misplaced the Slopestyle occasion, but it surely was arguably probably the most aggressive and star-studded podium in your entire historical past of the game. Throughout all six occasions in ladies’s freestyle snowboarding, there are solely three cases of an athlete who’s a 3x Olympic medalist. One in all them was Eileen Gu who took silver in Slopestyle. One other was Mathilde Gremaud, the athlete who narrowly edged her out for the gold medal.

After which there was Kelly Sildaru, who gained a bronze in Slopestyle and completed in 4th place in one other of her occasions. Sildaru’s stat line might not look spectacular by gymnastics requirements, however by Freestyle Snowboarding requirements it was historic.

In your entire historical past of freestyle snowboarding, from its Olympic debut to the newest Video games, in each single occasion whatever the “conventional” vs “2nd-generation” occasions distinction, when taking a look at each the lads’s and ladies’s outcomes, there are solely three examples in Freestyle Snowboarding of an athlete ending 4th or higher in two totally different Olympic occasions.

The three athletes in query have been the identical three athletes who completed 1st, 2nd, and third in 2022 Girls’s Slopestyle.

This statistic measures profession accomplishment, as in, no different athlete apart from these three even recorded a top-4 end in Occasion-A and got here again 4 years later and produced an identical lead to Occasion-B. Mathilde Gremaud, Kelly Sildaru and Eileen Gu every achieved it in solely a single Olympics. Eileen Gu successfully did it twice-over together with her three-medal efficiency. Mathilde Gremaud and Eileen Gu are the one Freestyle Skiers to ever win a number of medals in a single Olympics, male or feminine.

In different phrases, the one option to beat Eileen Gu in 2022 was to pit her towards the hardest opposition within the historical past of the game, and even then, it nonetheless required Eileen Gu shedding the gold medal by solely the narrowest of margins.

She performs with ice in her veins

Lots of the all-time greats in sports activities historical past are extremely regarded for performing properly beneath strain. Eileen Gu took this to the extremes. Elieen Gu carried out on three occasions on the 2022 Olympics and through two of them, she delivered an incredible “come from behind” end.

It began throughout her first occasion, “Huge Air.” Coming into her closing run Eileen Gu was in third place. It was her final likelihood to win a gold medal and if Eileen Gu failed on this run, that might be it. However Eileen Gu’s efficiency was something however. On her closing run with a gold medal not but secured, Eileen Gu produced one of many highest scores of the night time and propelled herself from third to 1st place.

Then in her second occasion, “Slopestyle” Eileen Gu discovered herself in the very same situation. Coming into her closing run Eileen was in eighth place, seemingly out of medal competition and if she failed on this final try, Gu would stroll away with no medal. As soon as once more, when the strain and stakes have been at its most intense, Eileen produced one of many highest scores of the night time and propelled herself from eighth to 2nd.

When it was time to compete in her closing occasion “Halfpipe” there was no likelihood of Eileen having to carry out one other come from behind end. This has historically been Gu’s most dominant occasion and she or he wiped the ground with the opposition on the 2022 Olympics. The halfpipe could be a 2-round occasion and in her first run (spherical), Eileen produced the best rating of anybody within the subject. As the highest qualifier Eileen Gu could be performing final.

Even after each different competitor took their two runs, nobody had surpassed Eileen Gu’s high rating from the opening spherical. By this level, Eileen Gu was the mathematical winner of the occasion and had achieved the best rating in your entire competitors. Regardless of this, Eileen Gu carried out her closing run understanding the gold medal was already gained.

Gu then produced a fair greater rating than earlier than.

Eileen Gu exceeded her earlier level complete with a fair greater rating on what was successfully a victory lap. Performing such a run was fully pointless. However Eileen Gu did it for no cause apart from self-amusement and including to her personal legacy. Within the three occasions Eileen Gu medaled in, on all three events her highest rating of the day got here in her final run.

The medal sweep within the three 2nd-generation occasions not solely legitimatized Eileen Gu as the highest Freestyle Skier of 2022, it legitimized all of her earlier outcomes. Since her debut in 2020 Eileen Gu has attended all however one main competitors that she has been eligible for. Reaching one of many highest participation charges amongst Freestyle Skiers with appearances in 4 main competitions.

Not solely did Eileen Gu attend every of those competitions, however she swept the medals in Huge Air, Slopestyle, and Halfpipe. Successfully going 4 x 3 for 12 profession medals. The competitions in query:

Eileen Gu merely doesn’t lose. She delivers in probably the most urgent moments and doesn’t get frazzled or fazed when the strain was at its most intense. Coming into Beijing-2022 there was an argument available that maybe the medals Eileen Gu gained on the X-Video games, World Championships, and Youth Olympics have been the byproduct of weakened aggressive fields.

However that argument is successfully lifeless now that Eileen Gu has repeated her success on the Olympics. Proving that no matter who attended the earlier competitions, Eileen Gu was going to win. Elieen Gu is a confirmed winner who can win beneath any circumstance whereas possessing a superhuman skill to maintain her nerves calm in each occasion of each competitors she competes in.

She switched to a fair tougher program

China is famed for being one of many dominant powers on the Summer season Olympics, however the nation has not achieved related success on the Winter Olympics. On the Winter Olympics China is historically a mid-level energy, nearly all the time inserting between Eleventh-Twentieth within the closing medal rankings. On solely two events in its historical past has China completed contained in the top-10 of the Winter Olympics closing medal tally.

One would initially assume that by switching nationalities from america to China, Eileen Gu was additionally transitioning from a program the place there was much less home competitors to take care of. However that’s not the case with reference to Freestyle Snowboarding. It’s really China’s 2nd most profitable sport on the Olympics.

In 2022 Girls’s Halfpipe Chinese language athletes certified in positions #1, #5, and #7 whereas the People certified in positions #8, #9, and #10. On the 2018 Olympics China had the #1 and #3 youngest athletes in your entire Pyeongchang Video games. The 2 athletes in query (Wu Meng and Zhang Kexin) have been Halfpipe Freestyle Skiers who compete in what’s Eileen Gu’s finest occasion.

In 2018 they have been merely a pair of 15 12 months olds, youthful than even Russian determine skater Alina Zagitova. They’d no viable medal prospects in 2018, however their future was on the rise. In Freestyle Snowboarding, usually it’s the older athletes who prevail. China additionally had a fair youthful prospect, Li Fanghui who completed in 2nd place behind Eileen Gu on the 2020 Youth Olympics.

Eileen Gu has the excellence of representing a profitable program the place the expectations are far greater, the home competitors is more durable, and the younger prospects who might at some point problem her for a spot on the following Olympic workforce are extra formidable. Eileen Gu determined to take all of this on as a result of she is just a fighter who sees any problem as an excuse to work laborious.

On the subject of Eileen Gu, she is the right embodiment of how life is just not honest. That some individuals are naturally gifted in methods the place it’s unfair that they can reach so many alternative issues without delay. Eileen Gu is likely one of the most versatile athletes within the historical past of her sport whereas concurrently being probably the most dominant medal winner it has ever skilled. Her athletic expertise is greater than anybody can hope to realize, and to high it off Eileen is intellectually gifted as properly.

She scored a near-perfect 1580 on her SAT, gained early acceptance to Stanford, and graduated from highschool in solely three years. The one time Eileen Gu has ever missed a serious competitors for a high-level senior meet was resulting from educational causes. If ever there was an athlete who can succeed at something, it’s Eileen Gu.