'Ridiculous': American-born China star Eileen Gu claps back at journalist

Chinese freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu labelled a journalist's question "ridiculous" regarding her performance in the big air at the Winter Olympics.

Gu took silver in the big air event with two impressive jumps that made her the most decorated woman in the history of freestyle skiing.

She finished second to Meghan Oldham of Canada after the contest was delayed more than an hour by a heavy snowstorm that blew through the Alpine town of Livigno.

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The American-born Gu, who competes for her mother's birthplace of China, was the defending gold medallist in both events. She brushed off a reporter's question about whether she viewed her performances as two silvers gained or two golds lost.

The journalist asked: "Do you see these as two silvers gained or two golds lost?"

She responded: "I'm the most decorated female freeskier in history!"I think that's an answer in and of itself.

"How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder, because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else's expectations rise, right?

"And so the 'two medals lost' situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take.

"I'm showcasing my best skiing, I'm doing things that quite literally have never been done before, and so I think that is more than good enough. But thank you."

Gu said she was particularly proud of her big air silver because she had not competed in the event since she won the gold in Beijing in 2022, and she had not trained for it ahead of the Games.

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She also hit her head and broke her helmet during a training run late on Monday. She said she used the downtime during the weather delay to lie in a dark room and put ice on her injury.

Freestyle skiing was added to the Olympics in 1992.

Gu now stands tied in the medal count with Canada's moguls specialist Mikhael Kingsbury, who is the most-decorated man in freestyle skiing.

She has a chance to overtake him when she competes in the halfpipe contest that starts with qualifying rounds on Thursday.