BEIJING — Standing atop the big air ramp here at Shougang before her third and final run, 18-year-old Eileen Gu rocked to her left one, two, three, several times. She blew a kiss.

Then she turned, pointed her skis at the ramp and threw down.

The Winter Olympics will never be the same. Winter sport in this country of 1.4 billion people will never be the same. In a Games marked by Covid and so much more, here was — joy. Here was the arrival of a personality the likes of which the Olympics, indeed worldwide sport, has not seen since perhaps Kobe Bryant, an international figure able to transcend boundaries. And, moreover — a young woman. The future.