Eileen Gu follows up ESPYS wins with half-marathon second place

Just in case we needed any more evidence that freeski phenom Eileen Gu is operating on a different plane, this past week was another one for to remember for the 18-year-old as she earned a few more accolades to add to an already overflowing trophy case.

First up was ESPN’s ESPYS Awards on Wednesday, 21 July, where Gu took home wins in both the Breakthrough Athlete category and the Best Athlete, Women’s Action Sports category - earning those trophies nearly six months to the day after she won her second gold medal and third total medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games back in February.

Gu’s three-medal haul in Beijing was unprecedented in Olympic Freestyle Skiing, as in one fell swoop she became the first freestyle skier or freeskier to win three medals in one Games, as well as putting herself into a tie atop the all-time individual Olympic medal table for those disciplines with her three podiums there in Beijing.

When you throw in her historic 2021/22 World Cup season, in which Gu became the first athlete to win every halfpipe competition of the season en route to claiming the halfpipe crystal globe and then the freeski overall globe by season’s end, a Dew Tour halfpipe win, and podiums in all three of the freeski events spread across various non-Olympic events, and you’ve got perhaps the most dominant individual season in freeski competition history.

So how does arguably the most recognisable, popular athlete in freeskiing follow up her big night on the awards show stage at the ESPYS?

Well, if you’re Eileen Gu, you fly back home to California, register yourself the San Francisco half marathon on a whim, and then proceed to finish SECOND PLACE in the 19-and-under category despite not following any kind of specific training regimen in the lead-up.

Gu finished the San Francisco half marathon with a time of 1:41:07 - just over five minutes back of the winner Natalie Barton. While Gu's average time over the 13.1 mile (21.1 km race) race was 7:44 mins/mile, over the final 2.2 miles she kicked things into high gear, with a 6:56 mins/mile average to finish things off. Incredible stuff.

We’ve said it before and we’ll probably say it again, but the last few days have proven once more that it’s Eileen Gu’s world, and the rest of us are just living in it.