Eileen Gu - The 'snow Princess' Who Divides Opinion
ByKatie Falkingham
BBC Sport Senior Journalist in Livigno
Updated 22 February 2026
Wherever Eileen Gu goes, her fans will follow. Headlines will too.
With six medals, including three golds - the 3rd of which she won in Sunday's halfpipe - she is the most decorated freestyle skier in the history of the Games.
But she is also somebody who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old global superstar with a bank balance to make your eyes water.
China fell in love with its 'snow princess' at the Beijing 2022 Olympics where, as the poster girl of the Games, she duly delivered.
She ended up being freestyle skiing's youngest Olympic champ with her big air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the very first to win three medals at the exact same Games when she included slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called one of Time publication's 100 most prominent people on the planet.
"I similar to being the very best. I have actually constantly desired to do that," said Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the huge air and slopestyle.
"I wanted to be the very best at math when I remained in kindergarten, and then I wished to enter the very best high school, and I wanted to have the highest SAT rating, and after that I wished to get to the very best college, and I wished to be the very best skier I could be.
"Then I wished to do every event, and then I wished to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's type of addictive."
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On and off skis, Gu is a high achiever in every part of her world.
California-born and raised by an American daddy and Chinese mom, she attended private school in San Francisco and is currently taking a sabbatical from her studies at Stanford University, where she majors in global relations and formerly studied quantum physics.
She is also fluent in Mandarin, and as a child would invest summer seasons in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of 2 countries on my shoulders," Gu stated previously in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of simply 15, she switched her sporting obligation from the US to China, wishing to "influence countless young individuals in Beijing - my mom's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her reasoning, it was a choice that showed financially rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female professional athlete for 2025, behind just tennis gamers Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, just a small quantity of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) income last year originated from cash prize from her sport - around $100,000 (₤ 74,000).
Instead, it comes through endorsements with brand names such as Red Bull, Porsche and Tiffany & Co, while she has actually strolled the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by modelling company IMG.
It also emerged in 2025, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, external, that Gu and another athlete were set to be paid a combined $6.6 m (₤ 4.9 m) by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau.
In total, the 2 athletes were said to be paid nearly $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the previous 3 years by the Bureau.
But her decision to contend for China was also one that drew much criticism, not even if of China and the US' rivalry as the world's 2 most significant economies, however because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its poor record on human rights - which it denies.
While the preliminary furore waned, it has raised its head again at these Games.
At the start of the Olympics, American freestyle skier Hunter Hess spoke up about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and continuous tensions in the US.
In January, extensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota resident Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE agents in the city, stimulating extensive protests.
Asked what it indicates to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little difficult.
"Even if I'm using the flag does not suggest I represent everything that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' remark by calling him a "real loser", and Gu was among numerous professional athletes who openly safeguarded Hess and others speaking out.
"As somebody who's been caught in the crossfire previously, I pity the professional athletes," she stated.
But that enraged her critics, provided Gu selected to speak up versus Trump but has actually never ever criticised China.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom called her a "traitor", adding she "was born in America, raised in America, resides in America and picked to contend against her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on earth - China".
"You do not get to delight in the liberties of US citizenship while serving as a global PR possession for the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote on X.
When asked about China's human rights record by Time publication, external, in an interview published in January, she responded to: "I'm not a professional on this.
"I haven't done the research. I do not believe it's my organization."
A 'ridiculous viewpoint' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m fans on Instagram, has actually amassed 11.7 m likes on TikTok, and at the Livigno Snow Park high up in the Italian Alps, no athlete has more fans in presence.
Clad at a loss colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags decorated with images of Gu's face pegged to the fences, and celebrate her every run like it has clinched Olympic gold.
After every run, the ever-driven and disciplined Gu looks for out her mom, Yan, to review video footage on her phone. Yan, supposedly a successful investor who brought her child up single-handledly, is recognized at the Games and is the very first individual Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's big air final, Yan was seen watching together with previous International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitors, Gu is the one every media outlet wants to talk to, and she with dignity and pleasantly requires as she slowly mixes through the mixed zone.
But it was from an interview earlier this week that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her two silver medals were in fact two golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in history. I believe that's a response in and of itself," she responded.
"How do I say this? a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it 5 times is significantly harder due to the fact that every medal is equally hard for me but everyone else's expectations rise, right?
"So the two medals lost scenario, to be quite frank with you, I believe is type of a ridiculous viewpoint to take.
"I'm showcasing my best skiing, I'm doing things that rather actually have actually never been done before so I believe that is more than excellent enough. But thank you."
In the lead-up to the Games, Gu did interviews with the likes of Vogue and Time magazine, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the possible to additional fuel a competitive rivalry at the top of the sport.
It was reported that the coach of Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud left her group to sign up with Gu's on the eve of the Games, just as he had 4 years previously before Beijing 2022.
At those Games, Gremaud pipped Gu to slopestyle gold, while Gu won the big air title with Gremaud taking bronze.
This time around, Gremaud again won slopestyle gold, with Gu taking silver, while the Swiss star withdrew from the big air after a crash, with Gu going on to complete 2nd again.
Before that big air final and as a result of reaching it, Gu had actually required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It meant, as the only lady contending in three freeski events, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After attracting the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another opportunity to train, she said she had been refused.
"This choice is disappointing to me since it appears to oppose the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only female to compete in three events need to not be penalised. Making finals in one occasion ought to not disadvantage me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually currently been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five guys, 5 ladies - welcomed to a halfpipe testing training session, while having 3 official training sessions is more than the normal two held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For professional athletes who select to complete in multiple disciplines and/or multiple occasions, conflicts can in some cases be inevitable."
So major is Gu taking these Olympics that she has brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per event. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would typically take to a competitors, she responded two or 3.
She qualified 5th for the halfpipe last, which was later on postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked listed below par in her opening run when she crashed on her very first trick.
Gu redeemed herself on the 2nd run, though, publishing a 94.00 score that moved her to the top of the podium, and bettered it once again to 94.75 on her final effort to safeguard her title.
Compatriot Li Fanghui took silver, while Great Britain's Zoe Atkin won bronze.
"I am not a gaming female, however if I were, I took a pretty big bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a possibility that everything might fail, and I would stroll away with absolutely nothing since I'm attempting to do too much. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if everything crashes and burns, I attempted, and I will never be sorry for attempting'.
"It's not being afraid to attempt, specifically as young women too, since a great deal of the time we get in our own way and there's this sense of, 'What if people make fun of me? What if I look dumb? What if it's not possible?'.
"It's trusting yourself to attempt, and if it does not work, that's OK. But who knows? Strive the stars."
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