Olympic gold medallist Eileen Gu praised for incredible clap back to reporter who asked her ‘ridiculous’ question
Eileen Gu had the perfect response for a reporter who appeared to be trying to down play her success at this year's Winter Olympics.
22-year-old Gu, who was born in the US but is representing China in the Milano Cortina 2026, has a whopping five Olympic medals to her name.
She won two golds and one silver medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and has now added two more to her already impressive track record, taking home two silver in the women's freeski slopestyle.
While Gu did not defend her gold medal in the freestyle skiing, the young Olympian was still smiling from ear-to-ear, and boasted to the press: "Five-time Olympic medallist kind of has a ring to it, right?"
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Hell yeah it does.
Speaking at a press conference on February 16 following her success, a sports reporter seemingly tried to rain on the ski star's parade in a now-viral moment.
He asked: "Do you see these as two silvers gained or two golds lost?"
Laughing, Gu — who is reported to be the richest athlete at this year's Games — replied: "I’m the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think that’s an answer in and of itself."
She added: "How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete.
"Doing it five times is exponentially harder, because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right? And so, the two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is a kind of ridiculous perspective to take."
Take a bow, Eileen Gu.
See the moment she was asked the question here:
The record-breaking skier has been widely applauded online for her reaction to the question, with one person saying her reply was 'perfect'.
"She gave the perfect answer to a rude question trying to get a rise out of her," somebody said on Reddit. "We've heard enough from you, sir."
Another person raged: "F**king insulting question! She did well not to get super p*ssed, it's essentially trying to erase the massive achievement of winning 2 silvers."
"It was a rage-bait question that she didn't bite on, and instead politely redirected back to the awesomeness of her sport while simultaneously lifting up her competitors," a different person said, adding: "The reporter should feel the burn."
Others defended the reporter's line of questioning, however.
It was suggested: "This is a loaded question, but I don't think it was asked with any ill intent--this question gets asked a lot of people who win silver."
Meanwhile another person argued that it was 'a fairly standard question that people get asked in sports'.
What do you think?
Niamh Shackleton