At the 2026 Olympics, Elana Meyers Taylor became a gold medalist at 41, securing her first Olympic title in the women’s monobob and challenging what peak performance looks like.
Figure skater Alysa Liu walked away from the sport on her own terms, then returned to capture gold, becoming the first U.S. woman to reach the top of the Olympic podium in 24 years. She showed the world what happens when you redefine winning as joy, not just medals.
And then there was Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu who a reporter asked whether winning silver felt like losing gold.
That question struck a nerve and made headlines for days, not because of the medal, but because of what it revealed.
As a CEO, investor, and women’s leadership strategist, Chantell Preston had an immediate reaction. The co-founder and co-owner of the women’s pro volleyball team, LOVB San Francisco, thought to herself, “We would never ask a man that.”
“There is something deeply telling about framing a silver medal, at the Olympics of all places, as a potential failure. A silver medal is not second best in the real world. It is the second best on the planet,” Preston says.
And yet, the question implied deficiency. It focused on what was missed and on what wasn’t achieved, and made the case that there could have been more.
“From where I’m sitting, that’s not just sports commentary. That’s cultural conditioning.”
The Deficit Lens Women Are Judged Through
In business, Preston says she sees this dynamic constantly.
“A friend of mine leads a mastermind for high-profile executives. On the last Zoom session, everyone thanked her in tears for how she changed their lives; but, one person criticized the curriculum. She called me after that meeting to talk about the criticism, not about the praise she received. We are conditioned to measure ourselves against the highest possible outcome, not the excellence we actually achieved.”
This is what Preston calls the perfection trap in real time, and she says it’s exhausting.
Emotional Intelligence Under Pressure
In the end, what stood out most to Preston, and millions of others, was not the question Eileen Gu was asked, but how she responded.
“She didn’t take the bait; she reframed it in real time,” she says. “That’s leadership. Whether it’s the Olympics or a boardroom, the ability to regulate your emotions and choose your narrative is everything.”
Gu stayed grounded in gratitude and pride. She modeled emotional intelligence and owned her achievement without apology.
In her upcoming book, The Success Lie, Preston writes about the distorted definition of success that women have been sold.
“We’re taught: ‘If it’s not gold, it’s not enough.’ Or for us non-Olympians, ‘If you’re not first, you’re behind. If you’re not perfect, you’re failing.’”
What Gu demonstrated so powerfully is something she teaches constantly: “You don’t have to be perfect to be powerful. And the women who redefine success on their own terms don’t just compete. They’re rewriting the rules.”
