{"id":1784282,"date":"2026-02-18T11:29:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1784282"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:29:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:29:33","slug":"how-olympic-freestyle-skiier-eileen-gu-keeps-so-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1784282","title":{"rendered":"How Olympic Freestyle Skiier Eileen Gu Keeps So Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6995a0294333b72f61de9716\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/12c8f3ab2875d01b42ca11b532684de6.jpeg”]<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Sports<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

How Eileen Gu Keeps So Cool<\/h1>\n
\n
By <\/span>Nick Remsen<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Photo: Yunling Fang<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

At the top of the hill before her last run in the Milano Cortina women\u2019s freestyle big air final, Eileen Gu, 22, stared intently into the dazzling void. Her task, at its simplest, was this: She needed a strong score to medal, and an exceptional mark for gold. She dropped in.<\/p>\n

Off the lip, Gu launched into a left-side double cork 1260\u2014a maneuver that slices through space, dragonfly-sharp, and that she\u2019d learned only the week before\u2014reaching back to grab the outside of her right ski and holding it deep into her rotations. She traveled through the air with the ultra-clean, efficient athleticism she\u2019s known for, landing backwards. Then, she let out an elated, \u201cWhat the heck?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu waited patiently for her score: 89.00. The number propelled her to the silver medal position, which she animatedly celebrated; she had not competed in the discipline since Beijing four years ago (there, at just 18, she\u2019d taken gold). As the contest wrapped, Gu hugged her sizable contingency of fans, her mother Yan, the gold medal winner Megan Oldham of Canada, and even Thomas Bach, the former International Olympic Committee president, who was cheering her on from the stands.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When we spoke a few days before the Games began, Gu told me: \u201cFor this Olympics, the only thing I can hope is to land runs that I feel proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu, who was born in San Francisco but who competes for China, where her mother is from, is a five-time medalist in freestyle skiing. This tally makes her the most decorated of any woman in the discipline\u2019s history. Along with her Beijing big air gold, she collected a halfpipe gold and slopestyle silver in China. In Italy, she earned silver in slopestyle.<\/p>\n

One would think that, given her results in Beijing, Gu would be less nervy going into Milano Cortina. That was probably true to some degree, but she spoke to me with so much confidence and clarity that I wondered if she\u2019s ever<\/em> gotten nervous.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Lorenz Richard\/Red Bull<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever really felt the external<\/em> pressure. Even in China, the one thing I was thinking about outside of performing was hoping to inspire someone else to start skiing,\u201d Gu said. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I remember the announcer, before I dropped into big air, he was speaking twice\u2014first in Mandarin, then in English. So I had to hear it twice: \u2018Eileen Gu, what will she do? Where will she land? Hundreds of million of people on the live broadcast now\u2026\u2019 I just thought, Oh my gosh, OK, I am going to turn up my music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu\u2019s particular form of discipline is driven by a mix of methodology, analysis, and psychology, all underscored by the reverb of possibility (that brand-new medal-winning trick in big air being the most recent example). It\u2019s Gu\u2019s own algorithm, and it clearly works. \u201cMany people in the finals of an event can win it. But the people who stay on the podium, there\u2019s a reason for that. I try to keep this in the back of my mind: nervous energy and excitement are the same biochemical in your brain. You just have to tell yourself which one it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Image<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Yunling Fang<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Gu half-joked that her three favorite things in life are skiing, school, and fashion. She\u2019s a senior at Stanford, majoring in international relations (she took the current academic year off to train for Milano Cortina). Her partnerships range, or have ranged, from Red Bull to Louis Vuitton to Luckin Coffee to Tiffany & Co. She is also a model, signed with IMG. \u201cFashion keeps me in touch with my femininity,\u201d she explained. \u201cGrowing up in a male-dominated sport, I didn\u2019t realize being treated equally as a girl was even an option until I discovered the fashion industry.\u201d She added: \u201cI think you can be really powerful and really feminine at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

When we spoke, the spring 2026 couture shows had recently ended, and while Gu didn\u2019t want to pick favorites, she did have some feedback. \u201cI thought Chanel was so fascinating. It was really wearable for couture. Did you see the diaphanous trousers that were meant to look like jeans, but were much lighter? I thought those were really beautiful. And Jonathan [Anderson] at Dior, his debut\u2026 it was really good, it was an interesting show. Almost kind of opposites, in a lot of ways. I have so many thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu went on: \u201cWhen I\u2019m on set, in my fashion headspace, my body is recovering from training. When I\u2019m at school, my mind is working and my body is recovering. When I\u2019m skiing, maybe my mind is recovering. I kind of use each one as rest from the other. I think of it almost like background tasks running\u2014something on your computer that\u2019s always going. That\u2019s kind of how it feels, so I\u2019m always doing something productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu has one more event in Milano Cortina: the freeski halfpipe. Qualifying begins on Thursday, February 19, and the finals are two days later. Many consider the halfpipe to be Gu\u2019s strongest area, and\u2014she being the sole woman to compete in freestyle\u2019s three disciplines at these Games\u2014the media attention has been intense.<\/p>\n

At this stage, however, Gu is used to it\u2014that algorithmic filter in her brain converting intrusions of anxiety into motivation. For 22, her maturity is medal-worthy in itself\u2014and she has plenty of big, open air ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worried for a while that maybe I peaked at 18,\u201d Gu said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that way anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/eileen-gu-milano-cortina-2026-interview”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/assets.vogue.com\/photos\/6995a0294333b72f61de9716\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/12c8f3ab2875d01b42ca11b532684de6.jpeg”] Sports How Eileen Gu Keeps So Cool By Nick Remsen February 18, 2026 Photo: Yunling Fang At the top of the hill before her last run in the Milano Cortina women\u2019s freestyle big air final, Eileen Gu, 22, stared intently into the dazzling void. Her task, at its simplest, was this: She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,50],"class_list":["post-1784282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}