Eileen Gu wins silver medal in high wind at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics

Eileen Gu, an American-born figure skater competing in China, was unable to defend her gold medal Monday night at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Gu won the silver medal in the women’s freeski big air competition, while Canada’s Megan Oldham won the gold.

Gu scored 90.00 in her first race, which was tied for third place, as Oldham and Lara Wolf of Austria scored better.

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But Gu’s mistake was in the second run, where he couldn’t hold the tail of his ski properly and his landing faltered, resulting in 61.25 points.

At that time, Gu was out of the medal position with one run left. In this competition, the top two scores are combined for each skater.

In the final race, Gu managed to score 89.00 points, giving him a final score of 179.00. That was enough for second place, but Oldham had a slight advantage, with 1.75 points more than Gu in the end.

EILEEN GU FORMER OLYMPIAN EILEEN GU WAS ‘REALLY’ CONFUSED FOR WINTER GAMES

Italy’s Flora Tabanelli finished with bronze in the event.

However, Gu was not upset by this result, revealing that he has won five Olympic medals in his two games. The first was in Beijing in 2022, where he took home gold in wind and short pipe, while winning silver in Slopestyle.

At this year’s Games, Gu won a silver medal in Slopestyle, with her remaining event later this week.

“‘Five-time Olympic medalist’ has a nice ring to it,” Gu told reporters after the event.

Before the medal ceremony, Gu called out the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for how tight the Olympic games were, saying that it was preventing him from getting the proper training sessions he needed for the freeski event.

Gold medalist Megan Oldham of Team Canada, silver medalist Ailing Eileen Gu of Team People’s Republic of China and Flora Tabanelli of Team Italy get a victory selfie during the Women’s Freeski Big Air medal ceremony on day 10 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb.206 in Italy, Feb. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Gu is the only athlete in this event who has three matches, and he says that his competition on Monday night prevents him from preparing properly for the qualifying round to enter the finals, which will start on Thursday.

“I am disappointed with FIS,” he said. “I think the Olympics should express aspiration, and I think being able to do something out of the ordinary should be celebrated instead of punished.

“I think it’s really wrong. I think it punishes beauty, to be completely honest with you. Because I dare to do three events, and this makes it completely impossible to train properly for the third event.”

Gu became a controversial figure in the sport in 2019 when he made the decision to ski for China instead of the United States in the upcoming 2022 Olympics. He grew up in California and attended Stanford, although his mother is a first-generation Chinese immigrant to the US

Gu said at the time that it was an “incredibly difficult” decision, and the American people did not like his decision much given the geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

Silver medalist Ailing Eileen Gu of Team People’s Republic of China looks on during the Womens Freeski Big Air medal ceremony on day 10 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb. 16, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Gu was celebrated in China for his selection, but the biggest question remains as he continues to be one of the best in the sport.

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Since China does not allow dual citizenship for its athletes, requiring Chinese citizenship for those competing, has Gu renounced his American citizenship? He has not answered the question.

As Gu heads to the halfpipe qualifiers on Thursday, the finals of the event are on Saturday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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