Stanford's Eileen Gu Overcomes Challenges to Take Home Olympic Medal

The first Stanford medal of the 2026 Olympics has been awarded, and it's no surprise who won it. On Monday morning in Italy, Stanford undergraduate and superstar skier Eileen Gu, won the silver medal in the women's slopestyle event at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, marking her fourth career Olympic medal.

The 22-year-old Bay Area native came into the event as the reigning silver medalist in the slopestyle event and defended her medal with another strong run.

Born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area, Gu represents China—her mother's home nation—and entered the Olympics as one of the biggest names to take center stage. Starting the run smooth, Gu made good time going down the mountain during her run, Gu's most notable tricks included a perfectly executed switch 900 before doing a perfect double cork 1080 flip.

Eileen Gu delivers a scorching 86.58 in the Women's Slopestyle final to top the leaderboard after her first run. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FvYIjppSM9
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 9, 2026

Gu ended up finishing with a score of 86.58, just behind gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud's winning score of 86.96. But dominating the run from start to finish, Gu takes home the silver and becomes the first Stanford athlete of this Olympics to take home a medal.

Despite finishing in second, cameras panned to Gu after her run and she gave a cheerful shrug to the camera, showing just how proud of herself she was after winning the silver. After all, Gu's road to Milan was a long one, overcoming several injuries, including a major concussion last year that forced her to take time away from the slopes.

"I really did overcome so much to get here," Gu said in an Olympics.com interview. "The last four years have been challenging, to say the least. I've dealt with a number of injuries. A year ago, I had the worst concussion I've ever experienced. I had seizures afterwards. There were people concerned [whether] I'm going to wake up.

"So being able to compete and really showcase my best skiing – that was my best slopestyle run that I’ve ever done, and I know that was Mathilde's best slopestyle that she has ever done as well-- to participate in pushing the sport at the level that it's at, is the highest honor for me."

Despite Gu missing out on the chance to become the first action sports athlete ever to win three golds at one Olympic Games, she can still make history if she wins a gold in either big air or halfpipe freeskiing, events she won gold in during the 2022 games. Shaun White is the only winter athlete with three golds in one Olympiad.

Since her dominant run in 2022, Gu has competed sparingly on big stages, but did win a gold at the 2024 X Games in superpipe. Only 22-years-old, Gu is still early in her career and will be someone to keep an eye on for years to come.

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