Eileen Gu Wins Olympic Gold Medal Before Learning of Grandmother's Death, 'She Inspired Me So Much'

Sunday was an emotional day for freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who ended her 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics by winning the gold in the women's freeski halfpipe but also learned her grandmother, Guozhen Feng, had died.

"She inspired me so much," Gu said, per Pat Graham and Eddie Pells of the Associated Press.

"The last time I saw her before I came to the Olympics, she was very sick, so I knew that this was a possibility. I didn't probably say that I was going to win, but I did promise her that I was going to be brave. She's been brave."

Gu, who is competing for China, ended her 2026 Games with Sunday's gold plus two silver medals from the women's freeski big air and women's freeski slopestyle competitions.

The most decorated freeskier in Olympic history now has three gold medals in freeski and was one of the faces of the Olympics.

She also won gold in the halfpipe and big air competitions in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

But her focus was also on her grandmother during an emotional Sunday.

"She was a steam ship," Gu said. "This woman commanded life, and she grabbed it by the reins, and she made it into what she wanted it to be."