Freestyle skiing-China's Gu has nothing to prove at Milano Cortina

LIVIGNO, Italy, Feb 5 - Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu, with two gold medals and a silver already under her belt from her first Winter Olympics, goes into the Milano Cortina Games with nothing left to prove.

At Beijing 2022, Gu became the first person to win three freestyle skiing medals at a single Olympics with gold in big air and halfpipe plus silver in slopestyle.

"I don't have anything left to prove," Gu told Reuters on Thursday on the eve of the opening ceremony.

“I’ve won more World Cups than any free skier ever, male or female. I am currently tied for most Olympic medals. I'm the youngest free-ski Olympic gold medallist. I am the only free skier to win three medals at a single Olympics.”

The 22-year-old is a major threat in all three disciplines in Livigno, a ski town in northern Italy where freestyle skiing events will be held starting on Saturday.

American-born Gu, who represents her mother's nation China, feels freed up the second time around because she is doing exactly what she wants to be doing.

“Before, I think I was doing what I knew how to do, now I'm doing what I want to do,” she said.

That new-found freedom has allowed the Olympic champion to find a new love for her sport after saying she had felt stuck for years.

“This past season, especially leading up to the Olympics, it has been so wonderful to rediscover my love for this sport.

“When I say I'm falling back in love with skiing, I think it's also falling back in love with myself and learning to trust myself again,” she added.

Gu made history in the big air final in Beijing when she secured the gold medal on her final run after becoming the first female to land a left-side double cork 1620, a trick she says has not been replicated since, even by her.

Asked if she had anything new up her sleeve in Livigno, Gu said she was hoping to deliver something fresh, though she refrained from divulging what she might be working on.

“Hopefully new tricks ... I'm here to do my very best. I think this is the stage to push myself if I can do so safely and if I have the capacity to do so,” she said.

Though Gu is now a veteran competing at her second Winter Games, the skier added that it still feels new to her.

“I always say that every Olympics feels like the first time because even though this is my second Olympics, it’s my 'first' second Olympics. And I hope that when I go to my third, it will also feel like my 'first' third Olympics.” REUTERS