After qualifying for the slopestyle competition, Eileen Gu bites into a dumpling.

The picture went viral on social media.

What is she eating?

The internet puzzled.

After the run, Gu says, "A fried bag stuffed with leeks." It shows how much attention Eileen Gu, who was actually born in the USA but competes for China, gets at these games.

Stefanie Sippel

sports editor.

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Even the question of what she eats is shared thousands of times.

The pressure of expectations on the part of the Chinese is correspondingly high.

On Tuesday, Eileen Gu could not quite fulfill it.

The Chinese fans waved their flags in the snow park.

She jumped over obstacles, did somersaults through the air.

But even without these feats, Gu has a style that seems to magically attract the Chinese.

Her number of followers on the Chinese platform Weibo is growing every day.

But not only positive things strike her.

Some users criticized Gu for being allowed to use Instagram, a platform banned in China.

Do they have different rules than the rest?

A question smoldering in China.

The day before the final, Gu said she needed to train, focus.

She turned down all interviews.

She seemed tense, quickly disappeared.

At the slopestyle finale, she seemed more relaxed again, smiled and waved to her fans.

And this despite the fact that things didn't look good for her from the start, just like in the Big Air finals when she ultimately became Olympic champion.

After two runs she was only eighth.

She needed a strong last run to still make it onto the podium.

And showed him.

But it wasn't enough to catch up with Mathilde Gremaud from Switzerland, who had already won silver in the discipline in Pyeongchang in 2018.

In Beijing she already won a bronze medal in the big air discipline.

Although Gremaud almost didn't make it to the slopestyle finals, she was back on Tuesday.

"After the botched qualification I thought I'd go under completely.

I felt empty, but the coaches were so nice to me," she said.

She cried for half an hour afterwards and was told to let it all out.

reboot.

On Tuesday she then achieved the highest score: 86.56 points in the second run - and only the strongest run counts.

In the last round, no other driver managed to score higher.

Eileen Gu finally scraped past her with 0.33 points less: silver.

Third was Estonian Kelly Sildaru with a good 82 points.

Gu and Gremaud hugged after the competition.

And of course Eileen Gu didn't let her positive energy be taken away from this outcome either.

“I am so happy that I was able to continue.

I converted the pressure into propulsion.

It feels so good.” Her goal was to win a gold medal and also be on the podium.

She has already achieved that goal.

And now comes their strongest event: the halfpipe.