China’s ski freestyle star Eileen Gu shows spectacular tricks at the big air event. The last jump gives her gold. With her triumph, she even brought the Chinese network “Weibo” to a standstill for a short time.
Eileen Gu sinks happily into the snow and shows her most beautiful smile. China’s poster girl landed her crowning gold jump in the big air event at the Winter Olympics and caused a stir. IOC President Thomas Bach also applauded the freestyle superstar, a staging that had an impact.
Media reported on Wednesday that the California native temporarily triggered a digital tornado in China with her tricks, even the “Weibo” platform was briefly paralyzed. The platform is often referred to as the Chinese Facebook. According to CNN, Gu dominated searches on “Weibo” after her win. Seven of the ten most important themes revolved around their triumph.
Millions of views cause a crash
She has around 2.6 million followers on Weibo. She reportedly had more than 90,000 comments on her post in just 30 minutes. Hashtags related to Gu’s win garnered more than 300 million views in an hour, eventually causing the entire Weibo website to crash momentarily, CNN reported.
In fluent Mandarin, the 18-year-old spoke of the “best moment of her life” after her performance. Dubbed “Golden Gu” or “Snow Queen” by her Chinese fans, Gu is the figurehead of the Chinese Olympic team. Her face graces the covers of magazines and billboards across the country.
At a press conference after her victory on Tuesday, Gu was asked several times by reporters if she was still a US citizen. She dodged the answer each time, saying only that she felt American in the US and Chinese in China. Her newfound success in China has also drawn criticism from the West.