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 decorated freestyle skier in the history of the Games.
But she is also 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 properly delivered.
She ended up being freestyle snowboarding's youngest Olympic champion 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 added slopestyle silver.
Later that year, she was called one of Time magazine's 100 most prominent people on the planet.
"I similar to being the best. I have actually always desired 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 math when I remained in kindergarten, and then I wanted to enter the best high school, and I wanted to have the greatest SAT rating, and then I wanted to get to the very best college, and I wished to be the very best skier I might 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."
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 father and Chinese mom, she attended private 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 likewise proficient in Mandarin, and as a child would spend summers in Beijing.
"Sometimes it feels like I'm bring the weight of two countries on my shoulders," Gu stated previously in the 2026 Games.
In 2019, at the age of just 15, she changed her sporting obligation from the US to China, desiring to "influence countless youths in Beijing - my mom's birthplace" before the 2022 Olympics.
Whatever her thinking, it was a decision 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, just a tiny amount of her $23.1 m (₤ 17.1 m) earnings in 2015 came 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 agency IMG.
It also emerged in 2025, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, external, that Gu and another professional 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 choice to contend for China was likewise one that drew much criticism, not even if of China and the US' competition as the world's 2 greatest economies, but since of China's authoritarian Communist Party rulers and its poor record on human rights - which it denies.
While the initial furore waned, it has actually raised its head once 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 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, triggering widespread protests.
Asked what it implies to represent the USA, Hess stated: "It's a little hard.
"Just due to the fact that I'm using the flag does not mean 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 professional athletes who openly protected Hess and others speaking out.
"As somebody who's been caught in the crossfire previously, I pity the professional athletes," she said.
But that enraged her critics, given Gu chose to speak out versus Trump however 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 chose to compete versus her own nation for the worst human rights abuser on the planet - China".
"You don't get to take pleasure in the freedoms of US citizenship while serving as an international PR property 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 addressed: "I'm not a professional on this.
"I haven't done the research. I do not think it's my organization."
A 'ridiculous viewpoint' and 'frustrating choices'
Gu has 2.6 m followers on Instagram, has actually accumulated 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 participation.
Clad at a loss colours of China, they line the front of the fan areas, flags adorned 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 review video footage on her phone. Yan, apparently a successful investor who brought her daughter 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 watching together with former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.
After competitions, Gu is the one every media outlet desires to talk to, and she gracefully and pleasantly requires as she slowly mixes through the combined zone.
But it was from an interview previously today that her remarks to a reporter went viral, when she was asked if she felt her 2 silver medals were in fact two golds lost.
"I'm the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think 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 tremendously harder because every medal is similarly tough for me however everybody else's expectations increase, ideal?
"So the 2 medals lost circumstance, to be quite frank with you, I believe is kind of an outrageous perspective to take.
"I'm showcasing my finest snowboarding, I'm doing things that quite actually have never been done before so I believe 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, but it was reports in the Swiss media, external that had the prospective 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 team to sign up with 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 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 complete 2nd once again.
Before that big air last and as an outcome of reaching it, Gu had required to Instagram to highlight a scheduling problem.
It meant, as the only woman competing in 3 freeski events, she would miss a complete day of halfpipe training. After attracting the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) for another chance to train, she said she had been declined.
"This decision is disappointing to me due to the fact that it appears to contradict the spirit of the Games," she said.
"Daring to be the only woman to compete in three occasions ought to not be punished. Making finals in one occasion must not disadvantage me in another."
BBC Sport understands Gu had actually already been handpicked as one of 10 professional athletes - 5 men, five ladies - invited 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 pick to contend in multiple disciplines and/or numerous events, conflicts can sometimes 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 how numerous she would normally take to a competition, she replied 2 or 3.
She qualified 5th for the halfpipe final, which was later on held off from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy snowfall, and looked below par in her opening run when she crashed on her very first trick.
Gu redeemed herself on the second run, though, posting a 94.00 score that moved her to the top of the podium, and bettered it 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, however if I were, I took a pretty huge bet on myself," said Gu.
"There was a possibility that whatever could fail, and I would leave with nothing due to the fact that I'm attempting to do too much. But in my head I was like, 'Even if everything crashes and burns, I attempted, and I will never ever be sorry for .
"It's not being afraid to try, particularly as girls 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 does not 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 events
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 site and app.
Full coverage guide
Winter Sports
Winter Olympics