On-site interview with Gu Ailing: I don't want to be an idol, I want to be everyone's friend

Hanging up the first Winter Olympic gold medal, becoming the Olympic champion, standing on the championship podium of the Beijing Winter Olympics, The Chinese skiing genius Gu Ailing is still hard to hide her excitement.

A few months ago, she set the Olympic gold medal as her mobile phone screensaver, but today, after receiving the award, she said that she would bring a photo of her Winter Olympic gold medal to replace it.

Walking down from the podium, in the mixed interview area of less than 50 meters, Gu Ailing walked for 10 minutes before coming to the Chuanguan News reporter. As soon as she appeared in the mixed interview area, she immediately received warm applause from the media present.

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

Reporter: The first time you raised the national flag and played the national anthem at the Olympic Games, how did you feel?

Gu Ailing: I am very happy, very excited, and very proud, my mobile phone screen has been an Olympic gold medal for many months. I really hung a gold medal around my neck, and I still have an unreal feeling to this day. I was very touched by the fact that I had so many friends and fans behind me to support me.

Reporter: Nine hours have passed since winning the championship, how did you spend it?

Gu Ailing: I gave a lot of interviews, ate a meal of dumplings, made a lot of phone calls with my friends, and then packed up and got into the car, because I was going to take the car to Zhangjiakou Chongli later, and I would start the training of slope obstacles tomorrow.

Reporter: Now that you have become One of China's top sports stars, how are you feeling?

Gu Ailing: Thank you! Very good mood. I've always said that the biggest goal is not to surpass others, to break their boundaries, but to hope that more teenagers, especially girls, can be exposed to this sport. So I hope that through today's competition and the Olympic Games, this such a big platform can make more girls dare to challenge. I hope that when you see me on TV, you can feel "Eling can do it, then I also want to challenge it." I don't want to be an idol, I want to be a friend to everyone.

Reporter: How do you understand the spirit conveyed by the Beijing Winter Olympics?

Gu Ailing: I think everyone is particularly touched, everyone has a very crazy feeling, everyone is crying, I think in the end we are doing it together, we are through sports, let all kinds of countries in the world, all kinds of sports, all kinds of projects, all kinds of people, to contact each other, make friends with each other, to enjoy the charm of sports, I think this is really the spirit of the Winter Olympics, I am very happy to be part of it.

Reporter: What do you think everyone calls you a "gifted girl"?

Gu Ailing: Thank you for calling me that. But I didn't feel like I was a genius, I worked so hard to get out, I was the first student in our high school history to graduate early, and in order to be able to go to the game, to be able to go to training, I also postponed entering my dream university. Sometimes in the summer, in order to shoot fashion blockbusters, it is possible to shoot eight to ten hours, but when I am finished, I still choose to go to the gym for two or three hours, which is my own effort. So I don't feel like genius, I feel like it's hard work. And I don't want people to feel like I'm a genius, because I don't want people to think that what I can do, they can't do. I want to do it with them.

Reporter: Is the Olympic gold medal different from other medals?

Gu Ailing: It's really different. Especially for small projects, it's about letting the world see us for a second. I've been breathing deeply because I don't want to cry anymore and hope I won't see these pictures in the future. The second is that I want to enjoy this second, I want to enjoy this process, I want to put every second deeply in my memory.

Reporter: I saw you bite the gold medal in your mouth, what does the gold medal taste like?

Gu Ailing: Cold! The taste is cold!

Reporter: Can you keep up 10 hours of sleep today?

Gu Ailing: It is estimated that I have not slept enough. Because we also had to drive to Zhangjiakou, it would take three hours.

Reporter: After the Winter Olympics, what is the one thing you most want to do?

Gu Ailing: After the end, I wanted to hug my cat and my grandmother, and then I thought I would have told my grandmother that we would go to Italy during the summer vacation together, go to the beach for a vacation, because I have been training more crazy in recent years, so I have very little time at home, so I want to celebrate with her.

Reporter: Xue Jian is from Beijing

Source: Sichuan Online