After a snow delay, the Eileen Gu show comes to slopestyle.

China’s new favorite Olympic athlete, 18-year-old freestyle skier Eileen Gu, begins a quest for what she hopes will be her second gold medal, this time in slopestyle.

Gu, who grew up in California but competes for China, is a favorite in the event, where competitors ski through a mountain course of rails and obstacles before navigating a series of three big jumps.

Qualifiers for the event were originally scheduled for Sunday, but high winds and rare blizzard conditions pushed them to Monday. Finals are on Tuesday.

Gu already has one gold medal, in big air, earned in a dramatic, come-from-behind fashion last Tuesday at an industrial park in western Beijing. Her win catapulted her to another level of fame and scrutiny. Afterward, she deftly answered questions from reporters for more than an hour while swiping away probing queries about her citizenship status.

The Olympics have a policy that athletes must be citizens of the country for which they compete, and China does not allow dual citizenship.

Gu, whose mother was born and raised in China and who maintains ties to Beijing, is a ubiquitous figure here. Her face graces advertisements of all sorts, and her exploits receive constant attention on state-run news channels.

Slopestyle is an event that suits Gu, who showed technical prowess on the rails at a young age, working with the U.S. national team (she switched to China in 2019). She is a daring jumper, as her big air victory demonstrated.

In a smattering of international competitions over the past year, Gu has won or finished second in every slopestyle event. Her biggest threat in Beijing is likely to come from Kelly Sildaru of Estonia and Tess Ledeux of France. It was Ledeux who led the big air event until Gu’s final jump dropped her to silver.

Gu’s third and final competition will be on Friday in the halfpipe, another event she has dominated over the past year. Her popularity has soared already, and it is hard to imagine just how big she will be if she manages to leave Beijing — on her way home to San Francisco — with three gold medals.