At age 18, Gu became the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing after winning gold medals in
big air and
halfpipe, and a silver medal in
slopestyle, at the
2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She is the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics. Her decision to compete for China was controversial, drawing international attention.
Time named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the 'Pioneers' category on its
annual list in 2022.[3]Forbes listed her as the second-highest earning female athlete in the world in 2023.[4]
Yan raised her daughter as a single mother in San Francisco's
Sea Cliff neighborhood.[6] At 3, Gu began skiing in Lake Tahoe, where Yan once worked as part-time ski instructor. She joined the
Northstar California Resort free-ski team at eight, and won her first national championship at nine.[9]
In 2021, Gu became the first woman to land a forward double cork 1440 in competition history.[14]
Coaches
Gu's coaches have included Jamie Melton, head coach of the Chinese National Slopestyle and Big Air Training Team for the 2022 Winter Olympics, [15] and Brad Prosser, who met Gu when she was ten. In 2018, he became the technical coach guide to the Chinese national team for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Her personal coach for the 2022 Olympics was Misra Noto Torniainen, the former coach of the Swiss freeski team.[16] Torniainen had coached Olympic medalists
Sarah Höfflin and
Mathilde Gremaud for the
2018 Winter Olympics.[17][18]
At the
2021 Winter X Games, Gu won a bronze medal in
Big Air and two gold medals in
SuperPipe and
Slopestyle, becoming the first rookie to win a gold medal in Women's Ski SuperPipe, the first rookie to medal in three events, and the first athlete representing China to win a gold medal at the X Games.[19][20][21]
At the 2024
Winter X Games, Gu won gold in
SuperPipe despite being injured on her right hip during the
X GamesSlopestyle training. She wrote "Pain is Temporary" on her hand, and showed it to the cameras during the finals. Due to the pain, she did not participate in
Slopestyle.[22]
Gu competed at the
FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021, winning two gold medals in Freeski Halfpipe and Freeski Slopestyle and a bronze medal in Freeski Big Air. Gu became the first freeskier to win two golds at the FIS Freeski World Championship.[23][24] She competed without poles for the first time due to a broken hand, having fractured a finger and tearing the UCL in her thumb.[25][26][27]
At the
2022 Winter Olympics, Gu became the youngest gold medalist in freestyle skiing, winning the
big air event, the first to be held at the Olympics.[28] Gu landed a double cork 1620, her first attempt in competition.[29] She was the second woman to land the trick and the first woman to land a left-turn 1620;[30]Tess Ledeux first successfully completed a double cork 1620 on 21 January 2022, at the
X Games in Aspen, Colorado, [31] Gu landed it again in her first run of the big air final at the
2022 Winter Olympics.[32][33]
Gu ended the
2021-2022 World Cup season with a perfect record in women's halfpipe, taking her first career
crystal globe and becoming the first freestyle skier to win four consecutive World Cup competitions.[38][39][40] She claimed her second crystal globe in the same season, placing first in Park & Pipe overall.[41]
Gu competed for the United States at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup. She began competing for China in June 2019 after requesting a change of nation with the
International Ski Federation. Her goal was to compete for China in the
2022 Winter Olympics.[43][44][45] She announced the change on
Weibo[46] and Instagram,[44] stating that through skiing she hopes "to help inspire millions of young people" in China and "to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations."[43]
There has been considerable controversy related to Gu's citizenship and nationality. The Chinese Consulate General in New York told the
BBC that Gu would have to have been naturalized or gained permanent residency status in China to compete for its team; in the same article, it was reported that the Chinese Ministry of Justice in 2020 broadened rules for foreigners, allowing people that achieved international recognition in sport, science, culture and other fields to obtain permanent residency.[47][48] In January 2024, Gu said that she planned to represent China at the
2026 Winter Olympics.[49]
Rather than focus on citizenship, Gu chooses to focus on her mixed
Chinese and
American ancestry. In an interview in May 2022, Gu referred to herself as an
Asian American.[50] In other interviews she has said, "Nobody can deny I'm American, nobody can deny I'm Chinese"[51] and "Since I was little, I've always said when I'm in the U.S., I'm American, but when I'm in China, I'm Chinese."[52][53]
Sponsorships, endorsements, and modeling career
As a "young American freestyle champion" at Nanshan Ski Resort, Gu had sponsorships in China at nine years old through connections with the resort's owner[54] and China's ski industry.[55] These included several Chinese sponsors,
The North Face, and
CCTV9.[55]
Prior to the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Gu was the face of multiple brands in China.[56] Gu has endorsed brands in China across sports, fashion, and banking.[56] Some of her partnerships in China include
Mengniu Dairy,
Luckin Coffee,
JD.com,
China Mobile,
People's Insurance Company of China,
Bank of China, and
Anta Sports. It was reported that she earned her over US$30 million in endorsements and advertising contracts in 2021 alone.[56][35][57] According to media reports, her average fee per endorsement increased from $1 million in 2021 to $2 to $2.5 million in 2022.[56][58]
Gu was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother. In 2002, a year before Gu was born, Yan Gu's sister Ling died in a car crash. Gu's mother decided to name her 爱凌 (Ailing), literally translating to "Love Ling", in her sister's honor.[63] In China, she uses the nickname "青蛙公主" ("Frog Princess") on her Chinese social media accounts. The nickname comes from a green helmet she once wore during competition.[64]
^"Olympic skier Eileen Gu sparks a debate about dual nationality". The Economist. February 17, 2022.
Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022. The International Olympic Committee says that Ms Gu acquired Chinese nationality in 2019 and that China's Olympic body produced a copy of her Chinese passport.
^Larmer, Brook (February 3, 2022).
"Cold warrior: why Eileen Gu ditched Team USA to ski for China". The Economist.
Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved February 21, 2022. Her name has never appeared on the US Treasury Department's list of expatriated individuals. In January 2021, she became a candidate for a US Presidential Scholars Programme open only to US citizens or permanent residents. Gu still spends far more time in America than in China and will return to attend Stanford in the autumn.