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 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 also somebody who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old worldwide super star 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 duly delivered.
She became freestyle snowboarding's youngest Olympic champ with her huge air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the very first to win 3 medals at the same Games when she included slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called one of Time magazine's 100 most prominent people in the world.
"I much like being the very best. I've constantly wished 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 remained in kindergarten, and then I wanted to get into the very best high school, and I wished to have the greatest SAT score, and then I wanted to get to the finest college, and I desired to be the very best skier I might be.
"Then I desired to do every occasion, and after that I desired 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 daddy and Chinese mom, she attended personal 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 proficient in Mandarin, and as a kid would invest summer seasons in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of two countries on my shoulders," Gu stated earlier in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she switched her sporting loyalty from the US to China, wanting to "inspire countless youths in Beijing - my mom's birth place" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her reasoning, it was a choice that proved financially rewarding.
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 small amount of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) earnings in 2015 came from reward money from her sport - around $100,000 (₤ 74,000).
Instead, it comes through recommendations with brands 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 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 previous three years by the Bureau.
But her decision to contend for China was also one that drew much criticism, not even if of China and the US' competition as the world's 2 most significant economies, but because of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its poor 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 up about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and continuous tensions in the US.
In January, extensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota homeowner Renee Good, 37, were both killed by ICE representatives in the city, sparking widespread protests.
Asked what it indicates to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little difficult.
"Just since I'm using the flag doesn't indicate I represent whatever that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' remark by calling him a "genuine loser", and Gu was among several athletes who publicly safeguarded Hess and others speaking up.
"As someone who's been caught in the crossfire in the past, I sympathize with the professional athletes," she said.
But that infuriated her critics, given Gu chose to speak up versus Trump but has 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 chose to compete against her own country for the worst human rights abuser in the world - China".
"You do not get to enjoy the liberties of US citizenship while functioning as a worldwide PR possession for the Chinese Communist Party," he composed on X.
When inquired about China's human rights record by Time magazine, external, in an interview published in January, she answered: "I'm not an expert on this.
"I have not done the research. I do not think it's my organization."
A 'outrageous viewpoint' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has amassed 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 at a loss colours of China, they line the front of the fan locations, flags decorated with images of Gu's face pegged to the fences, and celebrate her every run like it has clinched Olympic gold.
After every run, the ever-driven and disciplined Gu looks for her mother, Yan, to examine video footage on her phone. Yan, reportedly an effective investor who brought her child up single-handledly, is certified at the Games and is the first person Gu celebrates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air last, Yan was seen enjoying along with previous International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitors, Gu is the one every media outlet wants 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 this week that her remarks to a reporter went viral, when she was asked if she felt her 2 silver medals were in fact 2 golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in history. I believe 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 each professional athlete. Doing it five times is significantly harder due to the fact that every medal is similarly hard for me but everybody else's expectations increase, best?
"So the two medals lost scenario, to be rather frank with you, I believe is type of an absurd point of view to take.
"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have actually 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 similarity Vogue and Time publication, however it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the possible 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 join Gu's on the eve of the Games, simply 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 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 second again.
Before that big air last and as a result of reaching it, Gu had required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It implied, as the only female contending in 3 freeski events, 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 stated she had been declined.
"This choice is disappointing to me because it seems to oppose the spirit of the Games," she stated.
"Daring to be the only lady to contend in 3 events need to not be punished. Making finals in one event must not drawback me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had already been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - 5 guys, five women - welcomed to a halfpipe screening training session, while having 3 main training sessions is more than the normal 2 held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For who choose to contend in several disciplines and/or several occasions, conflicts can often be inevitable."
So major is Gu taking these Olympics that she has brought 21 sets of skis with her to Livigno, 7 per occasion. Asked by BBC Sport how many she would generally take to a competitors, she replied 2 or 3.
She qualified fifth for the halfpipe last, which was later postponed 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 2nd run, however, posting a 94.00 rating that moved her to the top of the podium, and bettered it 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 gambling woman, but if I were, I took a pretty big bet on myself," stated Gu.
"There was a possibility that whatever could go incorrect, and I would leave with nothing due to the fact that 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, especially as girls too, because a great deal of the time we get in our own method and there's this sense of, 'What if individuals make fun of me? What if I look dumb? What if it's not possible?'.
"It's trusting yourself to attempt, and if it doesn't work, that's OK. But who understands? Shoot for the stars."
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