Eileen Gu delivered a stunning performance to win gold in the women's ski halfpipe at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, but the event was overshadowed by controversy over the scoring of Britain's Zoe Atkin, who took bronze. Gu, competing for China, scored 94.75 on her final run to secure her third medal of the Games, while Li Fanghui of China claimed silver with 93.00. Atkin, the world champion, was awarded 92.5 despite executing jumps with greater height than her rivals.
British officials expressed frustration with the judging. Vicky Gosling, chief executive of GB Snowsport, said: 'I thought that the scoring was interesting. The minimum I thought she was going to get was silver. There are men that would struggle with the height Zoe actually gets.' Atkin's coach, Joe Schuster, added: 'Judging is a tough thing. I don't want to say anything negative. But if she had ended up higher than a bronze, I wouldn't have been surprised.'
Atkin, 23, was nonetheless pleased to match the bronze medal won by her sister Izzy at Pyeongchang 2018. 'I was so stressed out and so nervous, so I'm just super stoked,' she said. 'To be on the podium means so much to me.' Schuster also hailed the event as the greatest women's halfpipe competition in history.
Gu, 22, has become the most decorated freeskier in history with six Olympic medals. She described the challenge of competing multiple times as 'a marathon, but the pace of a 100m dash'. Reflecting on her mindset, she said: 'I'm an introspective young woman. I spend a lot of time in my head. It's not a bad place to be.' She later broke down in tears upon learning that her grandmother, Feng Guozhen, had passed away.
