Stanford's Eileen Gu Chasing Final Medal in Milan

Eileen Gu's time in Milan is not over yet. Already winning two Olympic medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Gu is looking to win a third medal in her signature event, the women's freeski halfpipe, before her second Olympic journey comes to a close.

The gold medalist in that event in 2022, Gu's focus is on defending her title and adding onto her already impressive career resumé that has seen her become the most decorated women's skier in Olympic history. Luckily for her, a strong showing in the halfpipe qualifiers put her in the finals, keeping her medal chase alive in the event.

Falling on her first run in the qualifiers, clipping the lip of the halfpipe on her third trick, Gu put together a strong enough second run, scoring an 86.50, and put herself in the top 12 and into Saturday's final. Her score on Thursday was the fifth-best during the qualifying, behind Zoe Atkin (GBR, 91.50), Fanghui Li (CHN, 90), Cassie Sharpe (CAN, 88.25) and Indra Brown (AUS, 87.5).

Similar to the snowboarding halfpipe event, skiers do a set number of tricks on a halfpipe ramp and score points based on how difficult the tricks are and the execution of their landings following the tricks.

The most decorated female Olympic freestyle skier in history, Gu making the finals gives her the chance to win her sixth Olympic medal and potentially a third career gold, after taking home silver medals at this year's Olympics in the big air and slopestyle events.

At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Gu won a gold in big air in addition to her gold in the halfpipe and her silver in slopestyle, making her the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a Winter Olympics.

Also qualifying for the halfpipe final is fellow Stanford undergrad, Zoe Atkin of Great Britain. Scoring a 91.50 on her first qualifying run, Atkin heads to the final as the top qualifier and is a heavy favorite to strip Gu of her title.

With the halfpipe qualifiers now over, the next opportunity to watch Gu and Atkin in action is Saturday, Feb. 21 when the two Cardinal standouts will get three runs to prove that they have what it takes to take home the gold.

The first final run begins at 7:30 p.m. Milano-Cortina time with run two at 8:00 p.m. followed by the 8:30 p.m. final run. In California, that will be 10:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.