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, 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 likewise somebody 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 girl of the Games, she duly provided.
She ended up being freestyle skiing's youngest Olympic champion with her big air and at the age of 18, and the first to win three medals at the same Games when she included slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called among Time magazine's 100 most prominent people in the world.
"I simply like being the finest. I have actually always desired to do that," said Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the big air and slopestyle.
"I wished to be the finest at math when I was in kindergarten, and after that I desired to get into the very best high school, and I wished to have the highest SAT score, and after that I wished to get to the very best college, and I wished to be the best skier I could be.
"Then I desired to do every event, and after that I wished to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's type 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 dad and Chinese mother, she attended independent school in San Francisco and is presently taking a sabbatical from her studies at Stanford University, where she majors in worldwide relations and formerly studied quantum physics.
She is also proficient in Mandarin, and as a child would invest summertimes in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels 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 simply 15, she changed her sporting obligation from the US to China, wishing to "motivate millions of young people in Beijing - my mom's birth place" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her reasoning, it was a decision that proved financially rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female professional athlete for 2025, behind only tennis gamers Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, only a tiny amount of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) earnings in 2015 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 walked the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by modelling 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 overall, the two athletes were said to be paid almost $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the previous 3 years by the Bureau.
But her decision to complete for China was also one that drew much criticism, not simply due to the fact that of China and the US' rivalry as the world's two greatest economies, however because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad record on human rights - which it denies.
While the initial furore waned, it has raised its head 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 tensions in the US.
In January, extensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota citizen Renee Good, 37, were both killed by ICE agents in the city, triggering extensive demonstrations.
Asked what it suggests to represent the USA, Hess stated: "It's a little tough.
"Even if I'm using the flag doesn't suggest I represent everything that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump responded to Hess' remark by calling him a "real loser", and Gu was one of a number of athletes who publicly safeguarded Hess and others speaking up.
"As somebody who's been caught in the crossfire previously, I sympathize with the professional athletes," she said.
But that infuriated her critics, given Gu selected to speak out versus Trump but has never ever criticised China.
Former NBA gamer 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 nation for the worst human rights abuser in the world - China".
"You don't get to delight in the liberties of US citizenship while functioning as a worldwide PR asset 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 answered: "I'm not a specialist on this.
"I haven't done the research. I do not believe it's my company."
A 'outrageous viewpoint' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m fans on Instagram, has accumulated 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 in the red colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags decorated 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 her mom, Yan, to examine video footage on her phone. Yan, apparently an effective investor who brought her daughter up single-handledly, is recognized at the Games and is the first individual Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air final, Yan was seen viewing together with previous 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 requires as she gradually mixes through the combined 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 in fact 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-altering experience for every single professional athlete. Doing it 5 times is significantly harder since every medal is equally hard for me but everybody else's expectations rise, ideal?
"So the two medals lost situation, to be rather frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous point of view to take.
"I'm showcasing my finest 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 publication, 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, just as he had four years earlier 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 end up 2nd once again.
Before that big air final and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had taken to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It implied, as the only lady competing in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss a full day of halfpipe training. After appealing to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another opportunity to train, she said she had been rejected.
"This choice is frustrating to me due to the fact that it seems to oppose the spirit of the Games," she stated.
"Daring to be the only woman to contend in three occasions should not be penalised. Making finals in one event should not downside me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually currently been handpicked as one of 10 professional athletes - 5 guys, 5 ladies - invited to a halfpipe screening training session, while having 3 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 numerous disciplines and/or several occasions, conflicts can sometimes be unavoidable."
So major is Gu taking these Olympics that she has brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per occasion. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would generally require to a competitors, she responded two 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 very first trick.
Gu redeemed herself on the second run, however, posting 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 defend her title.
Compatriot Li Fanghui took silver, while Great Britain's Zoe Atkin won bronze.
"I am not a gaming woman, but if I were, I took a pretty big bet on myself," stated Gu.
"There was an opportunity that everything could fail, and I would walk away with nothing because I'm trying to do too much. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if everything crashes and burns, I attempted, and I will never regret attempting'.
"It's not hesitating to try, specifically as girls too, since a lot 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 try, and if it does not work, that's OK. But who understands? Aim for the stars."
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