Mathilde Gremaud denies Eileen Gu of slopestyle Olympic gold again

The Olympic slopestyle war between Mathilde Gremaud and Eileen Gu rages on.

The Swiss skier successfully defended her gold in the women’s slopestyle final on Monday morning and held off Gu, who was born in America but competes for China, for the second straight Winter Olympics in a very close competition.

In slopestyle, skiers are judged for difficulty and execution across various rails and jumps. In the final, the best score of the three runs counts.

Gremaud edged ahead with a final score of 86.96 from the best of her three jumps as Gu narrowly trailed behind to grab silver after her final run didn’t go as planned. As a result, she held a final score and best jump of 86.58.

Canada’s Megan Oldham grabbed bronze with a score of 76.46.

To beat out Gremaud, Gu needed a big score on her final jump, but the shot at gold slipped away from her when she skittered off the first rail and fell to her side.

The slip-up only put her within 0.38 shy of gold and brought tears to her eyes at the finish.

After Gu’s fall, Gremaud knew she had the gold locked in and tied a Swiss flag around her neck, wearing it like a cape on her victory lap down the course. At the finish, she embraced her teammates after winning her fourth Olympic medal.

Four years ago, Gu was even closer to the gold, 0.33 shy of it against Gremaud.

Gu has earned international fame as a model and brand endorser, which has netted her $23 million.

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

Gu has two more events to pull off a gold — the women’s big air and women’s halfpipe — which she has done before.

She became a global star at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when she carried home three medals. Outside of her silver, she won gold in both the big air and halfpipe finals. It made her the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Olympics.

There is only more expected to come of Gu in the Milan Cortina Olympics when she attempts to defend those titles.