Eileen Gu and Kamila Valieva became the teenage faces of Beijing 2022 due to very contrasting circumstances

(CNN) — Eileen Gu and Kamila Valieva became the teenage faces of the Winter Olympics, but their memories of Beijing 2022 are likely to be very different.

Gu, a native of San Francisco, is now a two-time gold medalist, the youngest freestyle ski champion at the Olympics, a Chinese national heroine, and a budding author.

Born and raised in California, Gu chose to compete for China in 2019, where her mother was born, and became the first female freestyle skier in history to win three medals at the Olympics, winning gold in the events of halfpipe and big air.

“I am writing a book,” Gu told reporters on Saturday. “I have been writing diaries for years because I knew that the way I grew up was different, interesting and special, I would like to share it with everyone in the future.”

Model to follow

Hailed as the “pride of China” after winning her first gold, Gu has since won more medals than anyone else for the country at the Games.

But Gu does not see his achievements in Beijing 2022 as a purely personal achievement; they also have a larger representational purpose, according to the 18-year-old.

“We all know that extreme sports are heavily male-dominated and generally haven’t had the kind of representation and sporting equity that they should have,” Gu said.

“So I think as a young biracial woman, it’s very important to be able to hit those milestones and to be able to push the boundaries, not just my own boundaries, but the boundaries of the sport and the boundaries of the record books because that’s what flattens the past. for the next generation of women.

Known as Gu Ailing in China even before the Olympics, the young star’s face was everywhere in the country, on billboards, commercials, magazine covers and on state television during the build-up to the Games.

Given his success at Beijing 2022, his sky-high popularity, unsurprisingly, continued to skyrocket.

“If you see yourself in the sport, it totally changes your perception of what you can do in it,” Gu added.

“So my biggest goal is to have fun, but also to break the boundaries of the boxes that people are put into.”

“Very, Very Disturbed”

Instead, Valieva leaves Beijing under the cloud of an ongoing doping scandal and a “traumatizing” final performance.

The 15-year-old Russian figure skater was touted to dazzle at the Winter Olympics and she did, making history by becoming the first woman to land a quad at the Games.

However, a day after helping the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) win gold in the team event, the Russian teenager was suspended.

The February 8 suspension came after it was discovered that in December 2021, Valieva had tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart drug, although the result was only analyzed and reported to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). in February.

Valieva was subsequently cleared to compete in the singles figure skating event, but a dominant start ended in tears after she fell several times during the deciding free skate routine to finish outside the podium places in fourth place.

After the 15-year-old left the track in tears, former US Olympic figure skater Polina Edmunds described the experience as “very traumatic” for the youngster.

Edmunds’ discomfort was echoed by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, who said he was “very, very disturbed” seeing Valieva’s performance on television.

“How high the pressure must have been on her,” Bach told reporters during a news conference on Friday.

“This pressure is beyond my imagination, particularly for a 15-year-old girl. Seeing her wrestle on the ice, seeing how she tries to regain her composure. How she tries to finish her routine.

“In every movement of the body language…you could feel that it’s a huge, huge mental stress and maybe she would have preferred to just get off the ice. And try to put this story behind her.”

“Creepy atmosphere”

Bach also said that he did not have “a lot of confidence in Kamila’s closest entourage”, noting that he noted “how she was received…with what seemed to be tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this”.

“Instead of giving her comfort. Instead of trying to help her… you could feel this creepy atmosphere. This distance. And if you were reading their body language, it made it even worse because it was even some kind of dismissive gesture.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected Bach’s comments, saying that while he respected his opinion, he did not “necessarily agree with him.”

“Thomas Bach is a highly reputable person in sports, he is the president of the International Olympic Committee, and of course we respect his point of view, but we don’t necessarily agree with him,” Peskov told reporters at a briefing. on Friday.

Peskov added that although Bach did not like to see “tough” tactics at play, “everyone knows that in the sport of great achievements, a coach’s toughness is the key to victory”, adding: “We can seeing athletes achieve these victories. And coaches. So let’s be proud of our victors.”

Lizzy Yee, Angus Watson, Selina Wang, David Close, Jacob Lev, Jeevan Ravindran, and Ben Morse contributed to this report.