Their rivalry had ignited the big air at the start of the Games. Eileen Gu and Tess Ledeux met on Tuesday February 15 for the slopestyle final at the Genting Snow Park in Zhiangjakou. In a polar cold, where the temperature approached -20 degrees, the Frenchman could not do better than a disappointing seventh place. Gu, meanwhile, achieved a new feat in her last run to win the silver medal behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud and ahead of Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru.
Nothing was spared the 20-year-old Plagnarde, who arrived at these Games with an ultra-favorite sign. Patroness of the last X-Games in big air as in slopestyle with new tricks, everything was rolling for Ledeux. This beautiful confidence flew like Eileen Gu in the sky of Beijing. By stealing big air gold from the French on her last run, the Chinese shook all the certainties of the tricolor nugget. Slopestyle qualifying showed it, with Ledeux finishing ninth after a failed first run.
The final, shifted by one day because of the weekend’s snowfall, had the advantage of resetting the counters to zero. A real chance, especially since we thought the machine was relaunched during the first run of the final. With a very clean passage noted at 72.91, Ledeux settled on the provisional podium behind the Estonian Kelly Sildaru while Gu struggled to approach the 70. This duel was very quickly eclipsed by the second run of Mathilde Gremaud (86, 56), the only one that the Swiss would manage to pass in this final, but enough to win the title.
Behind, Ledeux could not ski at his level. During his last two runs, La Plagnarde stumbled on his switch 1000, an essential movement to hope to climb on the podium. In particular, she suffered a big fall during the second pass with a slight finger injury. “I was very tired. The last few days have been very complicatedexplained Ledeux to France Télévisions after her final, acknowledging that she had even almost given up yesterday. Lots of back pain, a little sick… It wasn’t madness. I tried to get past it all today, but I think I needed a rest.“
Gu still had a little under the skis to get out a last strong run. Enough to collect the silver medal with an 86.23 while the Estonian Kelly Sildaru obtained a deserved bronze in view of her runs. “There, there is a lot of frustration because I know that I was able to get beautiful things today“, added Ledeux proud despite everything of her medal in the big air. “It’s something that will make me grow.“To go even higher next time.