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, consisting of 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 likewise 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 woman of the Games, she properly provided.
She became 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 same Games when she added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called among Time magazine's 100 most prominent individuals worldwide.
"I similar to being the very best. I've always wished to do that," stated Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the huge air and .
"I desired to be the best at math when I remained in kindergarten, and then I wanted to get into the best high school, and I wished to have the greatest SAT score, and then I wanted to get to the best college, and I wanted to be the finest skier I might 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 sort 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 father and Chinese mom, she attended private school in San Francisco and is presently taking a sabbatical from her research studies at Stanford University, where she majors in worldwide relations and previously studied quantum physics.
She is likewise proficient in Mandarin, and as a kid would invest summers in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of 2 nations on my shoulders," Gu stated earlier in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she switched her sporting allegiance from the US to China, wanting to "influence millions of youths in Beijing - my mother's birth place" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a choice that showed financially rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female athlete for 2025, behind only tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, just a tiny amount of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) income last year originated from prize money from her sport - around $100,000 (₤ 74,000).
Instead, it comes through recommendations 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 professional athlete were set to be paid a combined $6.6 m (₤ 4.9 m) by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau.
In total, the 2 professional athletes were stated to be paid almost $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the previous three years by the Bureau.
But her decision to compete for China was likewise one that drew much criticism, not even if of China and the US' competition as the world's 2 most significant economies, however due to the fact that of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad record on human rights - which it rejects.
While the initial furore passed away down, it has raised its head once again at these Games.
At the start of the Olympics, American freestyle skier Hunter Hess spoke out about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and ongoing stress in the US.
In January, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota citizen Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE representatives in the city, sparking prevalent protests.
Asked what it implies to represent the USA, Hess stated: "It's a little tough.
"Even if I'm wearing the flag does not suggest I represent whatever that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by calling him a "genuine loser", and Gu was among several athletes who publicly safeguarded Hess and others speaking out.
"As someone who's been caught in the crossfire before, I pity the athletes," she stated.
But that enraged her critics, offered Gu chose to speak out against Trump however has never criticised China.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom called her a "traitor", including she "was born in America, raised in America, lives in America and selected to contend versus her own country for the worst human rights abuser on earth - China".
"You don't get to delight in the flexibilities of US citizenship while acting as a worldwide PR possession for the Chinese Communist Party," he composed on X.
When inquired about China's human rights record by Time magazine, external, in an interview released in January, she addressed: "I'm not a specialist on this.
"I haven't done the research. I don't believe it's my company."
A 'ludicrous point of view' and 'frustrating choices'
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 professional athlete has more fans in participation.
Clad in the red colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags adorned with images of Gu's face pegged to the fences, and commemorate her every run like it has clinched Olympic gold.
After every run, the ever-driven and disciplined Gu looks for out her mother, Yan, to review video footage on her phone. Yan, reportedly an effective venture capitalist who brought her daughter up single-handledly, is recognized at the Games and is the first person Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air final, Yan was seen watching alongside former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet wants to speak to, and she with dignity and nicely obliges as she slowly shuffles through the combined zone.
But it was from a press conference previously today that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her 2 silver medals were actually 2 golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in history. I believe that's a response in and of itself," she replied.
"How do I state this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-altering experience for each athlete. Doing it five times is significantly harder due to the fact that every medal is equally tough for me however everyone else's expectations increase, ideal?
"So the 2 medals lost circumstance, to be rather frank with you, I believe is kind of an outrageous perspective to take.
"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have never ever been done before so I believe that is more than great enough. But thank you."
In the lead-up to the Games, Gu did interviews with the similarity Vogue and Time magazine, however it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the potential to more 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 join 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 huge air after a crash, with Gu going on to complete 2nd again.
Before that huge air last and as a result of reaching it, Gu had actually required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling issue.
It suggested, as the only woman competing in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss out on a complete day of halfpipe training. After appealing to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another chance to train, she stated she had been rejected.
"This choice is disappointing to me since it appears to oppose the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only lady to complete in three events need to not be punished. Making finals in one occasion need to not drawback me in another."
BBC Sport comprehends Gu had actually already been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five men, five women - invited to a halfpipe testing training session, while having three official training sessions is more than the usual two held before World Cups.
In a declaration, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For professional athletes who choose to complete in several disciplines and/or multiple occasions, conflicts can sometimes be inevitable."
So severe is Gu taking these Olympics that she has brought 21 sets of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per occasion. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would generally require to a competition, she replied 2 or 3.
She certified 5th for the halfpipe final, which was later on held off from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked listed below par in her opening run when she crashed on her first technique.
Gu redeemed herself on the 2nd run, however, publishing a 94.00 rating 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 quite huge bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a chance that everything could fail, and I would stroll away with nothing due to the fact that I'm trying to do excessive. But in my head I was like, 'Even if whatever crashes and burns, I tried, and I will never ever be sorry for trying'.
"It's not hesitating to attempt, specifically as girls too, since a lot of the time we get in our own method and there's this sense of, 'What if individuals make fun of me? What if I look stupid? 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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