Olympic freestyle snowboarding star credit operating for her success

There’s little doubt that Eileen Gu has been one of many breakout stars of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Video games. The Chinese language freestyle skier has already received two silver medals in slopestyle and large air, and is now aiming to defend her Olympic halfpipe title from Beijing 2022 this weekend.

Between three freestyle snowboarding occasions and a number of qualification rounds unfold over a number of weeks, Gu’s schedule has been packed. After successful silver in girls’s large air, she was requested by a reporter how she manages such a rigorous schedule. She credited operating.

“For this reason I run lots,” Gu informed the reporter. “I do three occasions, so I construct up my VO2 max, so I can go back-to-back-to-back and compete for 3 weeks with no off days.”

For Gu, distance operating appears to be greater than only a passion; it’s the key behind her endurance. In a 2024 interview on the Chinese language social media platform Douyin, she talked about she had been operating as much as 10 miles per day whereas making ready for her first marathon in August 2024.

On the inaugural Marathon Pour Tous through the 2024 Summer season Olympics, Gu ran 3:24:36, ending inside the highest 200 girls in a mass‑participation discipline of greater than 10,000 beginner runners on the Olympic marathon course.

The 22-year-old, who research worldwide relations at Stanford College, has been a lifelong runner. As an adolescent rising up in California, she repeatedly competed within the iconic Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. In 2022, she accomplished her first half-marathon throughout San Francisco Marathon weekend, ending second in her age class in 1:41:07.

Whereas freestyle snowboarding isn’t usually regarded as an endurance sport, Gu’s cardio engine offers her a quiet edge in restoration and in sustaining energy throughout three consecutive runs wanted for the slopestyle, large air and half pipe occasions.