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 6 medals, including 3 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 someone who transcends her sport, a 22-year-old international superstar with a bank balance to make your eyes water.


China fell for its 'snow princess' at the Beijing 2022 Olympics where, as the poster lady of the Games, she appropriately provided.


She ended up being freestyle snowboarding's youngest Olympic champ with her big air and halfpipe golds at the age of 18, and the first to win three medals at the very same Games when she included slopestyle silver.


Later that year, she was named among Time magazine's 100 most prominent people in the world.


"I simply 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 huge air and slopestyle.


"I wished to be the very best at mathematics when I was in kindergarten, and after that I wished to enter into the finest high school, and I wanted to have the greatest SAT score, and after that I wished to get to the best college, and I wished to be the finest skier I might be.


"Then I wished to do every event, and after that I wished to win them all. When you get a taste of it, it's sort 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 father and Chinese mom, she participated in independent school in San Francisco and is presently taking a sabbatical from her research studies at Stanford University, where she majors in global relations and formerly studied quantum physics.


She is also fluent in Mandarin, and as a child would invest summer seasons in Beijing.


"Sometimes it seems like I'm carrying the weight of two nations on my shoulders," Gu stated earlier in the 2026 Games.


In 2019, at the age of just 15, she changed her sporting loyalty from the US to China, wanting to "inspire countless youths in Beijing - my mother's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.


Whatever her reasoning, it was a decision that proved financially rewarding.


In December, Forbes ranked Gu as the fourth-highest paid female athlete for 2025, behind only 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 last year came from cash prize 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 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 two athletes were stated to be paid nearly $14m (₤ 10.4 m) over the past three years by the Bureau.


But her decision to compete for China was also one that drew much criticism, not simply because of China and the US' competition as the world's two greatest economies, but because 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 out about the actions of the United States' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) organisation and ongoing stress in the US.


In January, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota homeowner Renee Good, 37, were both eliminated by ICE representatives in the city, sparking prevalent protests.


Asked what it implies to represent the USA, Hess said: "It's a little hard.


"Just due to the fact that I'm wearing the flag doesn't suggest I represent whatever 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 caught in the crossfire previously, I sympathize with the professional athletes," she stated.


But that enraged her critics, provided Gu picked 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 selected to contend against her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".


"You do not get to take pleasure in the freedoms of US citizenship while serving as a global PR possession 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 answered: "I'm not an expert on this.


"I haven't done the research. I don't think it's my company."


A 'absurd viewpoint' and 'frustrating decisions'


Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has accumulated 11.7 m likes on TikTok, and at the Livigno Snow Park high up in the Italian Alps, no athlete has more fans in participation.


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 commemorate her every run like it has actually clinched Olympic gold.


After every run, the ever-driven and disciplined Gu looks for out her mom, Yan, to review video footage on her phone. Yan, supposedly a successful venture capitalist who brought her child up single-handledly, is certified at the Games and is the very first person Gu commemorates her successes with.


During Monday's big air final, Yan was seen viewing 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 pleasantly obliges as she slowly mixes through the combined zone.


But it was from a press conference previously today 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 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-altering experience for every single athlete. Doing it five times is greatly harder due to the fact that every medal is similarly hard for me however everybody else's expectations increase, right?


"So the two medals lost scenario, to be quite frank with you, I believe is kind of an outrageous point of view to take.


"I'm showcasing my best snowboarding, I'm doing things that rather actually have actually 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 similarity Vogue and Time magazine, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the potential 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 group to sign up with Gu's on the eve of the Games, just 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 finish second once again.


Before that huge air last and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had actually required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling concern.


It indicated, as the only female contending in 3 freeski occasions, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After interesting the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another opportunity to train, she said she had actually been refused.


"This choice is disappointing to me since it appears to contradict the spirit of the Games," she stated.


"Daring to be the only lady to contend in 3 events must not be punished. Making finals in one event need to not downside me in another."


BBC Sport comprehends Gu had actually currently been handpicked as one of 10 athletes - five men, 5 females - invited to a halfpipe screening training session, while having three main training sessions is more than the normal 2 held before World Cups.


In a statement, FIS informed BBC Sport: "For athletes who pick to compete in multiple disciplines and/or numerous occasions, disputes can in some cases be unavoidable."


So severe is Gu taking these Olympics that she has actually brought 21 pairs of skis with her to Livigno, seven per occasion. Asked by BBC Sport the number of she would typically require to a competition, she responded 2 or 3.


She certified 5th for the halfpipe final, 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 technique.


Gu redeemed herself on the 2nd run, though, posting 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 gambling female, but if I were, I took a pretty big bet on myself," said Gu.


"There was an opportunity that everything could go incorrect, and I would leave with absolutely nothing since I'm trying to do excessive. But in my head I resembled, 'Even if whatever and burns, I attempted, and I will never ever regret trying'.


"It's not hesitating to attempt, particularly as young ladies 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 individuals laugh at me? What if I look stupid? What if it's not possible?'.


"It's trusting yourself to attempt, and if it does not work, that's OK. But who understands? Aim for the stars."


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