LIVIGNO, Italy – A beaming Eileen Gu had finished a row of interviews, silver medal around her neck, where a throng of Olympic volunteers were waiting to ask her for a group selfie. After putting on her million-dollar smile, she headed down the hill where she obliged another group asking her to do it all over again.
The gold medalist in freeski big air, Canada's Megan Oldham, had long since left the scene.
As always at the Winter Olympics, the American-born Gu who now represents China was the center of attention Monday night, which is usually right where she likes to be.
"I think I'm the first freeskier to five [Olympic medals]," she said, though it was technically moguls specialist Mikael Kingsbury one day earlier. "Five-time Olympic medalist kind of has a ring to it."
It sure does. But on this particular night, even if it doesn't generate as many clicks or social-media comments or requests for selfies, the story of how Oldham won her second seemed far more compelling.
It's a story that goes back to Parry Sound, a couple hours north of Toronto, when Oldham's adrenaline junkie brothers convinced her they should start skiing off the roof of their garage. Her father Howard, of course, was livid — mostly about the roof.
"The dad is a crazy dad and she has two really, really crazy brothers, and they grew up together doing obviously crazy stuff," her coach, J.F. Cusson said. "And this produces Megan. I call her 'Mighty Meg.'"
Mighty enough to overcome a November concussion that lingered for weeks and took her out of training during a key period of preparation for the Milan Cortina Olympics. Mighty enough to push through a bruised quad that she suffered one week ago during a heavy fall in slopestyle on her way to the bronze medal in that event. Mighty enough to take down the great Eileen Gu in big air, the event Gu won four years ago in Beijing for her second gold medal of those Olympics.
"Honestly, this has been an Olympics that has totally surpassed my dreams," Oldham said. "I wanted to come home with one medal and to come home with gold is something I never thought was possible. I'm so proud of myself."
In terms of sheer toughness, you cannot deny Oldham's performance Monday ranks among the most impressive of these Winter Olympics.
Her job as a freestyle skier is to perform outrageous, dangerous tricks, and big air is an event where only the most daring win.
But it was one of those tricks — one she worked on specifically for this event, the one Cusson said would have made her "unbeatable" — that almost cost her a chance to be here at all. It was the forward double cork 1440 mute — four full rotations in the air while performing two off-axis spins while also grabbing outside of her ski with the opposite hand — that caused a crash so bad Oldham can't remember anything about that day.
"I hadn't dealt with something like that before," she said. "I really wasn't sure how long the recovery would be and definitely felt a lot of pressure with the Games coming so close."
And still, even after she started to come back in December, the mental trauma was so acute she couldn't bring herself to try that trick again.
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"She had the yips, so that was a no-go," Cusson said. "It was pretty dramatic."
The plan changed. She was going to do a double cork 1260 both forward and switch — the switch meaning a backward launch — with the potential to try that big 1440 on the third run if she really, really needed it.
She did not.
On a night where the competition was delayed by 75 minutes due to snow blowing sideways in 18-mph winds but heated up instantly with massive tricks — including a couple stomped 1620s — Oldham's first two runs were so pure that she had clinched the gold before even needing a third since this event is scored by combining the best two attempts.
When Great Britian's Kirsty Muir — one of the 1620 landers — crashed on her third and final attempt, Oldham stood at the top of the ramp having fulfilled a desire that began to burn four years ago when she finished just off the podium in Beijing and didn't qualify for the finals in slopestyle.
"That was a bit of a heartbreak," she said. "I knew I was up there with the top girls. Being just off was really hard to process. I was really hungry to change that."
Gu did not come to these Games with that same hunger, which is why after landing a flawless double cork 1260 on third run, she celebrated like she won the gold when the 89.00 score flashed on the scoreboard, putting her in second place. Combined with the 1440 she landed on her first run, she felt it was a wild success in an event she hasn't even contested since the Beijing Olympics.
"I'm a competitor, so I'd be lying if I said I came into this contest and didn't think I had a chance at the podium, but I will say I definitely didn't expect it," she said. "I think I really showcased my best skiing. I've never done that trick in a contest before. I did it for the first time in four years three days ago in training. So talk about peaking at the right time. I was sitting at the top and thinking, if not now, then when? Right? When am I going to show the world what I've been working on? When am I going to show the world this level of women's skiing? When am I going to show the world how I handle pressure? This is it. Time is now. That's what I love about the Olympics."
The wind-up to that moment, of course, was pure Gu. Headed back to Stanford after these Olympics, there is no big moment in her life or athletic career without an interesting backstory.
And this one came when, after winning the silver in slopestyle last week, her mother Yan called a breakfast meeting and implored her to skip big air to focus exclusively on halfpipe — her best event — which will be contested here Saturday night.
"I was like, 'Let's just do the training and see how I do,'" Gu said. "It's most important for my body to feel good going into halfpipe, but if I can compete, why not? Like, I don't want to be afraid to try. And especially as young women, it's so important to, like, don't stop yourself before you have the opportunity to show the world how great you are. Don't be your own barrier."
That isn't likely to be a problem for Gu, whose ambition and composure is yet to meet a threshold it cannot demolish. Now a five-time Olympic medalist with an excellent chance to make it six, her story will never leave center stage.
But sometimes you have to make room for another A-list star — even if they're not getting mugged for selfies.