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 embellished freestyle 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 properly delivered.
She ended up being freestyle snowboarding's youngest Olympic champion with her big air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the first to win three medals at the exact same Games when she added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people worldwide.
"I much like 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 slopestyle.
"I wished to be the best at math when I remained in kindergarten, and then I desired to enter into the best high school, and I wished to have the highest SAT rating, and after that I wished to get to the best college, and I wanted to be the finest skier I might be.
"Then I desired to do every event, and after that I wanted 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 father and Chinese mother, she attended personal school in San Francisco and is currently taking a sabbatical from her 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 seems like I'm carrying the weight of 2 nations on my shoulders," Gu stated previously in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of simply 15, she switched her sporting loyalty from the US to China, wishing to "influence millions of youths in Beijing - my mother's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a decision that showed profitable.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female professional 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) income in 2015 originated from cash prize 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 walked the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by designing 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 athletes were stated to be paid nearly $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the past 3 years by the Bureau.
But her choice to complete for China was likewise one that drew much criticism, not even if of China and the US' rivalry as the world's 2 biggest economies, but because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad 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 up about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and ongoing tensions in the US.
In January, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota resident Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE agents in the city, triggering prevalent protests.
Asked what it means to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little tough.
"Even if I'm wearing the flag does not suggest 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 several professional athletes who openly protected Hess and others speaking up.
"As someone who's been captured in the crossfire previously, I feel sorry for the professional athletes," she said.
But that infuriated her critics, provided Gu picked to speak up 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 picked to compete against her own country for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".
"You do not get to delight in the freedoms of US citizenship while functioning as an international PR property for the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote on X.
When inquired about China's human rights record by Time magazine, external, in an interview released in January, she responded to: "I'm not a specialist on this.
"I have not done the research. I don't think it's my business."
A 'ridiculous viewpoint' and 'frustrating choices'
Gu has 2.6 m fans on Instagram, has 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 presence.
Clad in the red colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags adorned with pictures 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 seeks out her mom, Yan, to review video footage on her phone. Yan, reportedly an effective investor who brought her child up single-handledly, is recognized at the Games and is the very first person Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's big air final, Yan was seen enjoying alongside former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet wishes to speak with, and she with dignity and politely requires as she gradually mixes through the blended zone.
But it was from an interview previously today that her remarks to a reporter went viral, when she was asked if she felt her 2 silver medals were in fact two golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in history. I think that's an answer in and of itself," she responded.
"How do I state this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every single athlete. Doing it 5 times is significantly harder because every medal is equally difficult for me however everyone else's expectations increase, ideal?
"So the 2 medals lost circumstance, to be quite frank with you, I think is type of an outrageous viewpoint to take.
"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have actually never 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 similarity Vogue and Time magazine, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the potential 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 group to sign up with Gu's on the eve of the Games, simply 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 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 end up 2nd again.
Before that big air final and as a result of reaching it, Gu had taken to Instagram to highlight a scheduling concern.
It implied, as the only woman completing in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss out on a full day of halfpipe training. After attracting the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another chance to train, she said she had actually been refused.
"This decision is disappointing to me since it to oppose the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only woman to complete in three events ought to not be penalised. Making finals in one occasion ought to not downside me in another."
BBC Sport comprehends Gu had already been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - 5 males, five females - invited to a halfpipe testing training session, while having 3 main training sessions is more than the typical two held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS told BBC Sport: "For athletes who pick to complete in numerous disciplines and/or numerous events, conflicts can in some cases be unavoidable."
So serious is Gu taking these Olympics that she has actually brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per event. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would usually require to a competition, she responded 2 or 3.
She certified fifth for the halfpipe last, which was later postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked below par in her opening run when she crashed on her very first trick.
Gu redeemed herself on the 2nd run, however, publishing a 94.00 rating that moved her to the top of the podium, and improved it once 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 gambling lady, but if I were, I took a quite big bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a possibility that whatever might fail, and I would walk away with nothing because I'm attempting to do excessive. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if everything crashes and burns, I tried, and I will never be sorry for trying'.
"It's not being scared to attempt, specifically as young females too, due to the fact that a great deal of the time we get in our own method and there's this sense of, 'What if people make fun of me? What if I look silly? What if it's not possible?'.
"It's trusting yourself to attempt, and if it doesn't work, that's OK. But who understands? Aim for the stars."
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