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 6 medals, consisting of 3 golds - the 3rd of which she won in Sunday's halfpipe - she is the most embellished freestyle skier in the history of the Games.
But she is likewise someone who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old international super star with a bank balance to make your eyes water.
China fell for its 'snow princess' at the Beijing 2022 Olympics where, as the poster woman of the Games, she appropriately provided.
She ended up being freestyle snowboarding's youngest Olympic champ with her huge air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the very first to win three medals at the same Games when she included slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential individuals worldwide.
"I similar to being the best. I've always wanted to do that," said Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the huge air and slopestyle.
"I wished to be the very best at math when I was in kindergarten, and after that I wished to enter the finest high school, and I wanted to have the greatest SAT score, and then I wished to get to the finest college, and I desired to be the best skier I might be.
"Then I wanted to do every event, and then I wanted to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's sort of addicting."
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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 mother, she attended independent school in San Francisco and is currently taking a sabbatical from her research studies at Stanford University, where she majors in worldwide relations and previously studied quantum physics.
She is likewise fluent in Mandarin, and as a kid would spend summertimes in Beijing.
"Sometimes it seems like I'm carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders," Gu said earlier in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she switched her sporting obligation from the US to China, desiring to "motivate millions of youths in Beijing - my mom's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her reasoning, it was a choice that showed rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female athlete for 2025, behind just tennis gamers Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, only a tiny quantity of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) earnings last year came from cash prize from her sport - around $100,000 (₤ 74,000).
Instead, it comes through endorsements with brands such as Red Bull, Porsche and Tiffany & Co, while she has strolled the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by designing company IMG.
It likewise 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 choice to compete for China was also one that drew much criticism, not simply since of China and the US' rivalry as the world's 2 biggest economies, but because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its poor record on human rights - which it rejects.
While the initial furore waned, it has actually 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 continuous tensions in the US.
In January, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota homeowner Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE representatives in the city, stimulating prevalent demonstrations.
Asked what it implies to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little hard.
"Just because I'm using the flag does not mean I represent everything that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by calling him a "real loser", and Gu was among numerous athletes who publicly protected Hess and others speaking up.
"As someone who's been caught in the crossfire before, I pity the professional athletes," she said.
But that infuriated her critics, offered Gu picked to speak out versus Trump however has never criticised China.
Former NBA gamer Enes Kanter Freedom called her a "traitor", including she "was born in America, raised in America, resides in America and picked to complete against her own country for the worst human rights abuser in the world - China".
"You do not get to delight in the flexibilities of US citizenship while serving as a worldwide PR possession for the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote on X.
When inquired about China's human rights record by Time magazine, external, in an interview published in January, she addressed: "I'm not a professional on this.
"I haven't done the research study. I do not think it's my service."
A 'outrageous perspective' and 'disappointing choices'
Gu has 2.6 m fans on Instagram, has actually generated 11.7 m likes on TikTok, and at the Livigno Snow Park high up in the Italian Alps, no athlete has more fans in participation.
Clad in the red colours of China, they line the front of the fan locations, flags adorned with pictures 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 seeks out her mom, Yan, to examine video footage on her phone. Yan, supposedly an effective endeavor capitalist who brought her child up single-handledly, is certified at the Games and is the very first individual Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air last, Yan was seen seeing alongside previous International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet desires to speak with, and she gracefully and politely obliges as she gradually mixes through the mixed zone.
But it was from an interview earlier today that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her two silver medals were really two golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in history. I think that's a response in and of itself," she responded.
"How do I state this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-altering experience for every professional athlete. Doing it five times is significantly harder since every medal is equally tough for me however everybody else's expectations increase, best?
"So the 2 medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I believe is sort of an outrageous perspective to take.
"I'm showcasing my finest skiing, I'm doing things that quite have actually never been done before so I think 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 publication, however it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the prospective to further fuel a competitive competition at the top of the sport.
It was reported that the coach of Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud left her team to join Gu's on the eve of the Games, just as he had 4 years earlier before Beijing 2022.
At those Games, Gremaud pipped Gu to slopestyle gold, while Gu won the huge air title with Gremaud taking bronze.
This time around, Gremaud once 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 finish 2nd once again.
Before that huge air final and as a result of reaching it, Gu had actually taken to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It indicated, as the only woman completing in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After attracting the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another opportunity to train, she stated she had been declined.
"This decision is disappointing to me due to the fact that it appears to oppose the spirit of the Games," she stated.
"Daring to be the only female to contend in 3 occasions must not be punished. Making finals in one occasion need to not downside me in another."
BBC Sport comprehends Gu had currently been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - 5 men, 5 ladies - invited to a halfpipe screening training session, while having three official training sessions is more than the usual 2 held before World Cups.
In a declaration, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For athletes who pick to contend in numerous disciplines and/or several occasions, disputes can often be unavoidable."
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 how lots of she would generally take to a competitors, she replied 2 or 3.
She qualified fifth for the halfpipe final, which was later 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 score that moved her to the top of the podium, and improved it again to 94.75 on her last effort to safeguard her title.
Compatriot Li Fanghui took silver, while Great Britain's Zoe Atkin won bronze.
"I am not a betting lady, however if I were, I took a pretty big bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was an opportunity that everything could fail, and I would win nothing since I'm trying to do excessive. 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 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 silly? 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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