China's Gu Ailing Settles for Silver in Slopestyle, Triple Crown Bid Falls Short

Gu Ailing, the highest-earning athlete among 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics competitors, had to settle for a silver medal in women's freestyle skiing slopestyle. The 23-year-old Chinese star, who aimed to become the first Olympic freestyle skier to win gold in all three events—big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle—stumbled in her opening discipline, derailing her bid for a historic triple crown.

Gu finished second with 86.58 points in the finals held at Livigno Snow Park, Italy, on February 9. She had fallen during her first qualifying run but recovered in the second to advance to the finals in second place overall. Slopestyle is a discipline where athletes ski through a course featuring jumps, rails, tables, boxes, and waves, with judges scoring their technical performance.

Gu took first place after the opening run with 86.58 points but appeared to ease off in her second attempt, scoring just 23 points. Meanwhile, Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, who sat second after the first run with 83.60 points, surged ahead with a near-perfect second run of 86.96 points.

Gu needed to score above 86.96 in the third and final run. Going second-to-last, she appeared to buckle under pressure, slipping and falling on an early obstacle before flashing a bitter smile. Her third-run score was 1.65 points. Gu had also finished behind Gremaud for silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Born to an American father and Chinese mother, Gu competed for the United States before naturalizing to represent China ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where she won two gold medals. She claimed gold in halfpipe and big air while taking silver in slopestyle. According to Forbes, Gu earned $23 million (approximately 33.7 billion won) over the past year from endorsement deals and other activities.