Chinese golden girl Ailing Eileen Gu has revealed the secret Kiwi ingredient that helped her to Winter Olympics success on her home track at Beijing.
The freestyle skier supremo has already snatched big air gold and slopetsyle silver during the Games, and has led qualifiers into Friday's halfpipe final.
But the reigning world halfpipe champion is happy to credit a training stint at Queenstown two years ago for her recent international success - especially the local cuisine.
"Oh gosh, meat pies," she told Sky Sport after her halfpipe qualifying effort. "I have spent a significant amount of time at Cadrona in New Zealand over my summer, your winter.
"I had a meat pie every day for lunch for about two months - maybe a month-and-a-half. I don't think I realised, people were, like, 'That's so unhealthy', but I was, like, 'What do you mean, it's delicious, fantastic'.
"I guess I didn't realise it wasn't meant to be an every-single-day thing for lunch, but it stuck with me."
When she couldn't return to New Zealand last year, due to COVID-19, Gu admits she tried recreating the delicacy at her San Francisco home.
"It was delicious, but I came downstairs in the morning and there was only one little piece left... my mum ate it overnight."
Kiwi coach Brad Prosser was responsible for persuading Gu to extend her freeski repertoire to halfpipe.
"I wasn't a pipe skier until two seasons ago, when I started working with Brad," she told Sky Sport. "He was, like, 'I know you're not really into it, but let's just try it' and it just clicked like that.
"So much credit must go to Brad, I reach out to him all the time and I'll text him after this."
