Olympic skier Eileen Gu says staying at the top is harder than winning

Eileen Gu, the astir dressed up freestyle skier successful Olympic history, said she switches into "contest mode" erstwhile she competes.

Speaking to Jay Shetty connected Monday's section of the "On Purpose" podcast, Gu said she has a mantra that helps support her performing astatine the highest level.

"I train for illustration I've ne'er won, and I compete for illustration I've ne'er lost," Gu, 22, said. "That's important because A, I find it's difficult to win, but it's measurement harder to enactment there."

Gu made her Olympic debut astatine the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and astir precocious competed astatine the Milano Cortina Winter Games. In all, she has won 3 golden and 3 metallic Olympic medals.

She said her mantra besides helps prolong her drive.

"The 2nd point is it keeps you hungry, and that's what allows you to execute complete time," Gu said.

"The 3rd point is successful bid to beryllium a winner, you person to person this insatiable, almost obsessive, religious, conscionable all-in mentality erstwhile you compete," Gu continued. "But because it is truthful intense, you cannot prolong it ever because that's what creates really vulnerable egos."

Being overconfident aliases complacent tin besides get successful the measurement of the self-criticism needed to train well.

"For me, I spot only my mistakes erstwhile I'm training. I tin ne'er do thing right," Gu said, adding that she picks isolated moreover the smallest errors she makes, whether she is simply a fewer degrees disconnected aliases originates a activity a 2nd excessively early.

But title calls for the other mindset, and she has to make the switch, she said.

"And I'm like, 'I americium the champion personification who has ever stepped ft here. Nobody's moreover going to touch me. Everyone's competing for second,'" Gu said, referring to the self-talk she adopts erstwhile she's competing.

Drawing a clear statement betwixt her training and title mindsets "is what protects maine from going perfectly insane," Gu said.

She added that she's only "a normal magnitude of competitive" successful her regular life.

"It's only erstwhile I compete. I'm like, OK, change ego. Go time," she said.

Gu has antecedently spoken astir really she readies herself for high-pressure moments connected the slopes.

In a February question and reply pinch Red Bull, Gu said her precocious schoolhouse cross-country coach told her astir a psychological mentation that suggests nervousness and excitement tin nutrient the aforesaid consequence successful the assemblage — an thought that has helped her woody pinch her title jitters.

"When I utilized to consciousness really nervous, she would say, 'You're not nervous, you're conscionable excited'. That's really translated to immoderate precocious unit business I've ever been successful since then," Gu said.

Other athletes person besides spoken astir the strategies they usage to grip the unit of competition.

In February, alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she worked pinch a scientist to "desensitize" herself to the Olympics truthful she tin amended negociate the stakes of the Games.

In August, Naomi Osaka told Australian Tennis Magazine that she takes connected a different persona erstwhile she's competing. "I almost consciousness for illustration I'm a Barbie that dresses up and goes connected the tribunal and does something. When I travel backmost successful the locker room is erstwhile I'm for illustration my existent quiet Naomi," Osaka said.