Gu looked to repeat her feat from the Beijing Games, where she became the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at one Olympics.
MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — Freeskier Eileen Gu came up short of getting her second straight Olympic gold medal in big air, but did claim her second medal of the Milan Cortina Games on Monday night.
Gu found herself out of the medal position going into the third and final run. She jumped into second place on her final attempt.
The gold medal went to Canada’s Megan Oldham. It was just Canada’s second gold medal of the 2026 Games. Italy’s Flora Tabanelli took bronze.
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud, the 2022 big air bronze medalist and Gu’s top rival, was forced to miss the final. She injured her hip when she crashed in practice earlier Monday and was taken off on a stretcher. Gremaud beat Gu for slopestyle gold last week.
The final was delayed for over an hour due to a snowstorm.
The 22-year-old Gu hadn’t competed in a big air contest since winning the gold medal in Beijing four years ago. But there are enough similarities between big air and slopestyle, which features similar jumps, that Gu found her rhythm quickly.
She finished second in qualifying two nights ago. Afterward, she said she was upset because organizers didn’t make any accommodations for her to get a third practice session on the halfpipe, her final event.
The first of the three practices for the halfpipe, in which Gu also is the defending champion, took place at the same time as the big air final.
Gu said she looked for time when she could make up for the lost session, but officials from the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) would not accommodate her.
“I think being able to do something that’s beyond the ordinary should be celebrated instead of punished,” she said.
Gu was looking to repeat her feat from the Beijing Games, where she became the first action-sports athlete to win three medals at one Olympics.
Why does Eileen Gu compete for China?
She was born in San Francisco, but she represented China at the 2022 Winter Games and is doing so again at the 2026 Winter Games.
The reason why? Her mother’s heritage. Her father is American, and her mother is Chinese, having emigrated to the United States more than three decades ago. Gu embraces her multicultural upbringing. According her Olympic biography, she is fluent in both Mandarin and English.
“People sometimes don’t know what to do with other people when they’re not fitting in a box,” Gu said during the 2022 Olympics. “They say, ‘Is she Chinese? Is she American? Is she a model? Is she a student? Why is she trying to change the world when she’s only 18?’”
She learned to ski in the United States and trained with the American team for years. When it came to figuring out which uniform to wear for the Beijing Games, she said she thought about it and felt she would have a greater impact if she could bring action sports to a wider audience in a country with no history on snow.
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