Celebrity Life

Beijing is all geared up to host the 2022 Winter Olympics from 4 February to 20 February. This time, the host country has high hopes from 18-year-old freeskiing champion Eileen Gu. And that’s not all. She is one of the most accomplished teenagers in the game out there.

Born in the US to a Chinese mother and American father, Gu decided to swap her American team to represent China at 15.

From breaking records on the slopes to starring in many international modelling campaigns and even getting offers from top global universities, she has several golden feathers in her hat.

From the Chinaese contingent, Gu is the sportsperson to look out for in big air, halfpipe and slopestyle competitions.

Here’s all you must know about this rising Olympic star

Representing China

 

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A post shared by Eileen Gu 🖤🌈🧊🐲 (@eileen_gu_)

Gu announced the major news, in 2019, on her Instagram when she changed her teams for the 2022 Games. Having found her love and passion for freeskiing, Gu decided to represent her mother’s native place.

In her post, she explains, “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, my mother's birthplace, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote the sport I love.”

Freeskiing accolades

Right from the beginning, Gu has proved to be the freeskiing prodigy that she is. Her recent achievement was when she bagged two golds and one bronze at the Winter X Games. She made a record with her unmatched form by becoming the first female rookie to participate and win in three disciplines.

The winning streak continued when she entered the 2021 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in Aspen to become the first Chinese woman to win multiple golds.

That is not all. Gu wrapped up the year with many records, which include becoming the first woman to stand a Double Cork 1440 on the Stubai Glacier in Austria.

Her winning repertoire is quite long and illustrious. In 2020, she emerged as the freeskiing star in the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) at Lausanne, Switzerland. Gu grabbed golds in halfpipe and big air events, as well as a silver in slopestyle.

Inspired by the 2008 Olympics and her love for promoting this rather male-dominated winter sport, Gu is focused on taking on the slopes for the 2022 biggie. Her mother, an avid skier herself, had taken her on her first ski adventure at the tender age of just three months.

Academic brilliance

 

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A post shared by Eileen Gu 🖤🌈🧊🐲 (@eileen_gu_)

Shining not just in sports, Gu excels in academics as well. She has received an offer from the globally renowned Stanford University, her mother’s alma mater. However, the plans of starting school have to wait for the upcoming 2022 Olympic Games.

Having faced negative comments for her American upbringing from the Asian community and championing a male-dominated sport, Gu is a strong advocate of gender equality and representation of women in sports.

Modelling campaigns

Besides dedicating her heart and soul to freeskiing, Gu is also quite the fashionista and has several brand endorsements and modelling assignments to her credit. Already featured in Forbes ‘30 under 30’ in 2020, Gu became the youngest athlete to make it to the list at 17.

Representing several international brands, like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, Gucci and Fendi, this athlete is setting major fashion goals with her jaw-dropping style statements. She has contracts with the model agency IMG Models Worldwide and has already graced the cover of Vogue and Chinese Elle. Gu has been invited to the Met Gala and Paris Fashion Week and has her hands full with many new interesting projects in the pipeline.

She also has a strong presence on Instagram with over 215k followers.

(Main and featured image credit: Eileen Gu/ @eileen_gu_/ Instagram)

The post Things to Know About Olympic Skier Eileen Gu appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Seven new events designed to increase women’s participation and diversity have been introduced at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held from 4 to 20 February 2022.

The events include four mixed teams, an exclusively women’s event, and two separate events for men and women.

Some of these new events are an extension of the existing disciplines, while others are thoughtfully introduced to make the spirit of the Olympics truly universal.

What is also noteworthy is that at least one — ski jumping — did not even have a women’s event for 90 years since making its debut in the early part of the 20th century. It now gets a mixed team event just eight years after the women made their debut, which, to some degree, underlines the long strides being made for diversity and inclusion in the world today.

Here are the seven events making a debut at the Winter Olympics

Ski jumping mixed team event

One of the oldest events in the Winter Olympics, ski jumping has been a permanent fixture since first introduced in 1924. However, it did not have a women’s event till the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Russia.

Eight years later, the ski jumping mixed team event is set to appear for the first time at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Rules are similar to that of the men’s large hill team competition except that the mixed event will be held on a smaller normal hill.

Twelve countries are participating in this event. Each team will have four members — two men and two women. Two rounds will be held and the team with the highest combined total, after eight jumps, will be the winner.

The event will be held at the Kuyangshu Ski Jumping Field in Zhangjiakou.

Short-track speed skating mixed relay

The mixed relay of the short-track speed skating is a relatively new event on the international stage, having made its debut in the 2018-19 World Cup season.

Similar to the ski jumping mixed team event, the short-track speed skating mixed relay will have 12 teams, with four members comprising two men and two women. A total distance of 2,000 metres divided into 18 laps will be covered by each team, with each skater appearing twice in the relay.

Instead of passing batons, each member will tag the other to progress. The event will be held at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing.

Men’s and women’s freestyle skiing big air

The freestyle skiing big air will feature two events, one for men and the other for women. Winning is all about performing the most astounding of tricks in mid-air.

Points are awarded based on what is popularly known as ‘DEAL’ — difficulty, execution, amplitude and landing. Freestyle is intensely artistic and tough at the same time, as participants also have to land perfectly after executing an impressive trick.

In other tournaments, this event is the one that has younger participants taking the prize. Its counterpart, snowboarding, which made its debut in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, was a tremendous success.

Freestyle skiing mixed team aerials

This event is unique because it features three competitors in each team. While each team must have at least one male member and one female member, teams are free to pick the third member from either gender.

Rules are simple — points are awarded to each of the three members in a team based on the technique of jump, tricks and landing. The team awarded the highest points wins.

Interestingly, aerials is a sport in which China has a decisive edge over others.

Snowboard cross mixed team event

As a sport, snowboarding made its debut in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin after enjoying over a decade of popularity since appearing in a TV show in 1991. It has been part of famous video games by EA Sports and SEGA. Yet, the mixed team event of the sport is making its debut at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Each team in the mixed event will have one man and one woman. It follows almost similar rules like the men’s and women’s events of the sport. Thus, there will be four competitors — one from each team — racing next to each other on a course almost 1 km long, with several turns and jumps.

The men’s group will race first. The women’s group follows once the men’s race is over. In the mixed event, the women members of the team will start in a staggered format as per the finish times of the men.

Four countries — the US, Italy, Canada and France — have fielded two pairs each, while eight other countries will be represented by one pair each.

Women’s monobob

The monobob is a women’s-only event making its debut in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It is set to level the number of Olympic bobsleigh events between men and women. The men participate in four-man and two-man events, while women had, till now, only the two-woman competition.

The monobob is a simple sled, identical in design for each of the participating teams. In monobob, athletes have to push the sled, perform dives and break on their own. In the larger group events, the roles are divided.

Women’s participation in Olympic bobsleigh has been going on since the 2002 edition in Salt Lake City. The monobob was an event in the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Lillehammer in 2016 and Lausanne in 2020.

The women’s monobob event at the 2022 Games will be held at Yanqing Sliding Centre.

(Main and Featured images: Christof Stache/AFP)

The post These Seven Events Will Debut at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.