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 third of which she won in Sunday's halfpipe - she is the most skier in the history of the Games.
But she is likewise somebody who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old worldwide 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 girl of the Games, she appropriately provided.
She became freestyle skiing's youngest Olympic champ with her huge air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the very first to win 3 medals at the same Games when she added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was named among Time publication's 100 most influential people in the world.
"I similar to being the best. I have actually constantly wanted to do that," stated 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 was in kindergarten, and after that I wished to enter into the best high school, and I wished to have the greatest SAT rating, and after that I wished to get to the finest college, and I desired to be the very best skier I could be.
"Then I wanted to do every event, and then I desired 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 daddy and Chinese mother, she attended independent 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 child would invest summers in Beijing.
"Sometimes it seems like I'm carrying the weight of two nations on my shoulders," Gu stated previously in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she changed her sporting obligation from the US to China, wanting to "motivate millions of youths in Beijing - my mom's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a decision that showed rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female professional athlete for 2025, behind just tennis players 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 originated 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 agency 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 said to be paid nearly $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the previous 3 years by the Bureau.
But her choice to complete 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 due to the fact that of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad record on human rights - which it rejects.
While the preliminary furore waned, it has raised its head once 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 ongoing tensions in the US.
In January, extensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota local Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE representatives in the city, triggering prevalent protests.
Asked what it suggests to represent the USA, Hess stated: "It's a little hard.
"Just since I'm wearing the flag does not mean I represent whatever that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by calling him a "real loser", and Gu was one of numerous professional athletes who openly safeguarded Hess and others speaking up.
"As someone who's been captured in the crossfire previously, I sympathize with the professional athletes," she stated.
But that infuriated her critics, given Gu picked to speak up against Trump but has actually never ever 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 selected to contend against her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".
"You don't get to enjoy the flexibilities of US citizenship while serving as an international 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 responded to: "I'm not an expert on this.
"I haven't done the research study. I don't think it's my company."
A 'outrageous point of view' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has 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 attendance.
Clad in the red colours of China, they line the front of the fan locations, flags embellished with images of Gu's face pegged to the fences, and commemorate her every run like it has actually clinched Olympic gold.
After every run, the ever-driven and disciplined Gu looks for her mom, Yan, to examine video footage on her phone. Yan, apparently a successful endeavor capitalist 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 huge air last, Yan was seen viewing alongside previous International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet desires to talk to, and she with dignity and pleasantly obliges as she slowly shuffles through the combined zone.
But it was from a press conference earlier this week 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 decorated 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-changing experience for every single athlete. Doing it five times is significantly harder due to the fact that every medal is equally hard for me however everybody else's expectations rise, ideal?
"So the two medals lost scenario, to be rather frank with you, I believe is kind of an absurd point of view to take.
"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have never ever been done before so I think that is more than sufficient. But thank you."
In the lead-up to the Games, Gu did interviews with the likes of Vogue and Time magazine, however it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the potential to additional fuel a competitive competition 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, simply as he had four 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 once 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 second once again.
Before that big air last and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It suggested, as the only female completing in three freeski events, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After appealing to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another opportunity to train, she said she had actually been declined.
"This decision is disappointing to me since it seems to oppose the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only woman to compete in three occasions should not be punished. Making finals in one occasion ought to not disadvantage me in another."
BBC Sport comprehends Gu had actually currently been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five males, 5 females - 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 declaration, FIS told BBC Sport: "For professional athletes who pick to contend in several disciplines and/or multiple occasions, disputes can in some cases be unavoidable."
So severe is Gu taking these Olympics that she has actually brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, seven per event. Asked by BBC Sport how many she would usually require to a competitors, she replied 2 or 3.
She certified fifth for the halfpipe final, which was later delayed from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked below par in her opening run when she crashed on her very first technique.
Gu redeemed herself on the second run, though, posting a 94.00 score that moved her to the top of the podium, and bettered 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, but if I were, I took a pretty huge bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a possibility that everything could fail, and I would win nothing since I'm attempting to do excessive. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if everything crashes and burns, I attempted, and I will never ever be sorry for trying'.
"It's not being afraid to try, specifically as young females too, due to the fact that a lot of the time we get in our own method and there's this sense of, 'What if people laugh at 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 understands? Aim for the stars."
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