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 also someone who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old global 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 duly provided.
She became freestyle skiing's youngest Olympic champion with her huge air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the very first to win three medals at the exact same Games when she added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people on the planet.
"I much like being the finest. I've always wished to do that," said Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the big air and slopestyle.
"I wanted to be the finest at math when I was in kindergarten, and after that I wished to enter into the best high school, and I desired to have the highest SAT rating, and then I wanted to get to the very best college, and I wanted to be the very best skier I could be.
"Then I wanted to do every event, and after that I wished to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's kind 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 mom, she participated in independent school in San Francisco and is currently taking a sabbatical from her research studies at Stanford University, where she majors in global relations and previously studied quantum physics.
She is also fluent in Mandarin, and as a child would invest summer seasons in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of 2 countries on my shoulders," Gu stated earlier in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she switched her sporting allegiance from the US to China, wishing to "inspire millions of youths in Beijing - my mother's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a choice that showed lucrative.
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, just a tiny quantity of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) income in 2015 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 actually strolled the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by modelling firm IMG.
It also emerged in 2025, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, external, that Gu and another 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 stated to be paid almost $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the previous 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' competition as the world's two most significant economies, but due to the fact that of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its poor record on human rights - which it rejects.
While the preliminary furore passed away down, it has actually raised its head 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 continuous stress 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 widespread demonstrations.
Asked what it means to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little hard.
"Even if I'm wearing the flag doesn't imply I represent everything that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by calling him a "genuine loser", and Gu was among numerous athletes who publicly defended Hess and others speaking up.
"As someone who's been captured in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the professional athletes," she said.
But that enraged her critics, given Gu selected to speak up against Trump however has actually never 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 chose to complete against her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".
"You don't get to take pleasure in the liberties of US citizenship while serving as a worldwide PR asset 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 professional on this.
"I have not done the research. I don't think it's my company."
A 'outrageous perspective' and 'disappointing choices'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has actually 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 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 seeks out her mother, Yan, to examine video footage on her phone. Yan, supposedly an effective investor who brought her child up single-handledly, is accredited at the Games and is the first individual Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air last, Yan was seen seeing along with former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet wants to speak to, and she gracefully and pleasantly obliges as she gradually mixes through the combined zone.
But it was from an interview previously this week that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her 2 silver medals were really 2 golds lost.
"I'm the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think that's an answer 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 athlete. Doing it 5 times is greatly harder since every medal is similarly hard for me but everyone else's expectations rise, best?
"So the two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is type of a ludicrous viewpoint to take.
"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have never been done before so I believe that is more than excellent enough. But thank you."
In the lead-up to the Games, Gu did interviews with the likes of Vogue and Time publication, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the possible 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 4 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 finish second once again.
Before that huge air last and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had taken to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It implied, as the only woman competing 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 actually been turned down.
"This choice is frustrating to me due to the fact that it appears to contradict the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only female to contend in three events need to not be punished. Making finals in one event must not downside me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually already been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - 5 men, five females - welcomed to a halfpipe testing training session, while having 3 official training sessions is more than the usual 2 held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For athletes who choose to complete in several disciplines and/or several events, disputes can in some cases be unavoidable."
So major 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 the number of she would typically require to a competition, she replied 2 or 3.
She certified fifth for the halfpipe final, which was later on 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 rating that moved her to the top of the podium, and improved it once again to 94.75 on her final 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 quite big bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was an opportunity that everything could go incorrect, and I would leave with nothing because I'm attempting to do too much. But in my head I was like, 'Even if whatever and burns, I tried, and I will never ever be sorry for trying'.
"It's not hesitating to try, specifically as young ladies too, because a lot of the time we get in our own way and there's this sense of, 'What if individuals make fun of me? What if I look stupid? What if it's not possible?'.
"It's trusting yourself to try, and if it doesn't work, that's OK. But who knows? Strive the stars."
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