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 third 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 woman of the Games, she appropriately provided.
She became freestyle skiing's youngest Olympic champ with her huge air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the first to win three medals at the same Games when she added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was named among Time publication's 100 most prominent individuals on the planet.
"I similar to being the best. I have actually constantly wished to do that," said Gu at the Milan-Cortina Olympics, where she earlier won silver medals in the huge air and slopestyle.
"I desired to be the very best at math when I was in kindergarten, and after that I wished to enter the very best high school, and I wished to have the greatest SAT score, and after that I wanted to get to the finest college, and I desired to be the best skier I could be.
"Then I wanted to do every occasion, and after that I desired to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's sort of addicting."
The two Chinese-American Olympians contending for competing superpowers
13 February
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 mother, she went to independent school in San Francisco and is presently taking a sabbatical from her research studies at Stanford University, where she majors in worldwide relations and formerly studied quantum physics.
She is also fluent in Mandarin, and as a kid would spend summer seasons in Beijing.
"Sometimes it seems 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 changed her sporting obligation from the US to China, desiring to "motivate millions of youths in Beijing - my mom's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her reasoning, it was a choice that showed rewarding.
In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female professional athlete for 2025, behind just tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
But unlike those 3, just a small amount of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) earnings in 2015 originated from prize money 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 strolled the runway for Louis Vuitton and Victoria's Secret and is signed by designing firm 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 decision to contend for China was likewise one that drew much criticism, not simply due to the fact that of China and the US' rivalry as the world's two biggest economies, however since of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its bad record on human rights - which it denies.
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 out about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and ongoing stress in the US.
In January, extensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota resident Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE representatives in the city, sparking widespread protests.
Asked what it indicates to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little tough.
"Even if I'm using the flag does not indicate I represent whatever that's going on in the US."
President Donald Trump reacted to Hess' comment by calling him a "real loser", and Gu was one of several athletes who openly safeguarded Hess and others speaking out.
"As somebody who's been caught in the crossfire in the past, I sympathize with the professional athletes," she stated.
But that infuriated her critics, offered Gu selected to speak up against Trump but has actually never ever criticised China.
Former NBA gamer Enes Kanter Freedom called her a "traitor", adding she "was born in America, raised in America, resides in America and picked to complete versus her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".
"You do not get to delight in the liberties of US citizenship while serving as an international PR possession for the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote on X.
When asked 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 haven't done the research study. I don't think it's my business."
A 'outrageous perspective' and 'disappointing decisions'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has generated 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 at a loss colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags decorated with images of Gu's face pegged to the fences, and celebrate 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 examine video footage on her phone. Yan, reportedly an effective venture capitalist who brought her child up single-handledly, is accredited at the Games and is the very first person Gu commemorates her successes with.
During Monday's huge air last, Yan was seen seeing along with previous International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet wishes to talk to, and she with dignity and nicely obliges as she slowly shuffles through the blended zone.
But it was from an interview earlier this week that her remarks to a journalist went viral, when she was asked if she felt her two silver medals were actually two golds lost.
"I'm the most embellished female freeskier in . 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-changing experience for each professional athlete. Doing it 5 times is significantly harder due to the fact that every medal is equally tough for me but everybody else's expectations increase, best?
"So the 2 medals lost scenario, to be rather frank with you, I believe is type of a ridiculous viewpoint to take.
"I'm showcasing my finest snowboarding, I'm doing things that quite literally have never 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 magazine, 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 sign up with 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 huge 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 finish 2nd once again.
Before that huge air final and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had actually required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling issue.
It suggested, as the only lady contending in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After appealing to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another chance to train, she stated she had actually been denied.
"This choice is frustrating to me because it appears to contradict the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only lady to complete in 3 events must not be punished. Making finals in one occasion should not downside me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually currently been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five males, five women - welcomed to a halfpipe testing training session, while having three main training sessions is more than the usual 2 held before World Cups.
In a statement, FIS told BBC Sport: "For professional athletes who choose to complete in multiple disciplines and/or multiple occasions, conflicts can often be inevitable."
So major is Gu taking these Olympics that she has brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, seven per event. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would usually take to a competitors, she responded 2 or 3.
She qualified fifth for the halfpipe final, which was later on delayed from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked below par in her opening run when she crashed on her first trick.
Gu redeemed herself on the 2nd run, however, publishing a 94.00 score that moved her to the top of the podium, and bettered it once again to 94.75 on her last effort to defend her title.
Compatriot Li Fanghui took silver, while Great Britain's Zoe Atkin won bronze.
"I am not a betting lady, but if I were, I took a pretty huge bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a chance that everything could go wrong, and I would win absolutely nothing since I'm trying to do excessive. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if whatever crashes and burns, I attempted, and I will never regret attempting'.
"It's not being afraid to attempt, specifically as young females too, since 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 try, and if it doesn't work, that's OK. But who understands? Strive the stars."
Day-by-day guide to the Winter Olympics
22 February
Full schedule including times of medal occasions
Winter Olympics 2026 medal table
Winter Olympics 2026
6-22 February
Milan-Cortina
Watch on iPlayerListen on Sounds
Watch two live streams and highlights on BBC iPlayer (UK just), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text commentary and video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.
Full protection guide
Winter Sports
Winter Olympics