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, including 3 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 international superstar with a bank balance to make your eyes water.
China fell in love with 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 champ with her big 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 named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential individuals on the planet.
"I much like 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 big air and slopestyle.
"I desired to be the best at math when I was in kindergarten, and after that I wanted to enter the finest high school, and I wished to have the greatest SAT score, and after that I wanted to get to the finest college, and I wished to be the finest skier I might be.
"Then I wanted to do every occasion, and then I desired to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's kind 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 dad and Chinese mom, she went to independent school in San Francisco and is presently taking a sabbatical from her studies at Stanford University, where she majors in global relations and previously studied quantum physics.
She is likewise fluent in Mandarin, and as a kid would invest summers in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of two nations on my shoulders," Gu stated earlier in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she switched her sporting obligation from the US to China, wishing to "motivate millions of youths in Beijing - my mom's birth place" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a decision that proved rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female athlete for 2025, behind just tennis gamers Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, just a small 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 brand names 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 athlete were set to be paid a combined $6.6 m (₤ 4.9 m) by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau.
In overall, the 2 professional athletes were stated to be paid almost $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the past three 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 greatest economies, but because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad record on human rights - which it denies.
While the preliminary furore waned, it has actually 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 continuous tensions in the US.
In January, intensive 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 indicates to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little difficult.
"Just due to the fact that I'm using the flag does not suggest I represent everything that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by him a "real loser", and Gu was one of a number of athletes who openly defended Hess and others speaking out.
"As someone who's been captured in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes," she said.
But that enraged her critics, given Gu chose to speak up against Trump but has actually never ever criticised China.
Former NBA player 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 nation for the worst human rights abuser in the world - China".
"You don't get to enjoy the flexibilities of US citizenship while acting as an international 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 published in January, she addressed: "I'm not a professional on this.
"I have not done the research. I do not believe it's my organization."
A 'ridiculous point of view' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has actually collected 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 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 looks for her mom, Yan, to evaluate video footage on her phone. Yan, supposedly an effective endeavor capitalist who brought her child up single-handledly, is recognized at the Games and is the very first individual Gu commemorates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air last, Yan was seen viewing together with former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitors, Gu is the one every media outlet wishes to talk to, and she with dignity and pleasantly requires as she gradually shuffles through the combined zone.
But it was from a press conference previously this week that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her two silver medals were in fact two golds lost.
"I'm the most decorated female freeskier in history. I believe that's a response in and of itself," she responded.
"How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every single professional athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder since every medal is equally hard for me but everybody else's expectations rise, ideal?
"So the two medals lost scenario, to be rather frank with you, I think is sort of a ludicrous viewpoint to take.
"I'm showcasing my finest skiing, I'm doing things that rather actually have never ever been done before so I think that is more than great enough. But thank you."
In the lead-up to the Games, Gu did interviews with the similarity Vogue and Time publication, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the possible to additional fuel a competitive rivalry at the top of the sport.
It was reported that the coach of Swiss skier Mathilde Gremaud left her team 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 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 second once again.
Before that huge air last and as a result of reaching it, Gu had actually required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It implied, as the only lady completing in three freeski occasions, she would miss out on a full day of halfpipe training. After interesting 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 because it seems to contradict the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only lady to compete in three events must not be penalised. Making finals in one event should not disadvantage me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually already been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five men, five ladies - welcomed to a halfpipe testing training session, while having 3 main training sessions is more than the normal 2 held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS told BBC Sport: "For athletes who select to compete in numerous disciplines and/or numerous occasions, conflicts can sometimes be inescapable."
So serious is Gu taking these Olympics that she has actually brought 21 sets of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per occasion. Asked by BBC Sport how lots of she would typically require to a competitors, she responded two or 3.
She certified 5th for the halfpipe last, 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, 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 defend her title.
Compatriot Li Fanghui took silver, while Great Britain's Zoe Atkin won bronze.
"I am not a gaming lady, however if I were, I took a pretty huge bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a chance that whatever might go wrong, and I would stroll away with absolutely nothing due to the fact that I'm trying to do excessive. But in my head I was like, 'Even if whatever crashes and burns, I tried, and I will never ever be sorry for attempting'.
"It's not hesitating to try, especially as young females too, because a great deal of the time we get in our own way and there's this sense of, 'What if people laugh at me? What if I look foolish? 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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