Freestyle skier Eileen Gu, 18, is one of China’s biggest stars at the Winter Olympics, winning gold in the women’s big air at the Beijing 2022 Games – and making history as the first Chinese woman to win Olympic gold on snow. Dubbed China’s “Snow Princess”, she’s also an incoming Stanford University student and a model who has worked with Chanel and Victoria’s Secret. Here are nine things you need to know about the Olympic sensation … 1. She’s a freestyle skier representing China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing Gu was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. She began learning how to ski at age three and went professional in 2020 at the age of 16. Although she represented the US for most of her life, Gu chose in 2019 to represent China, where she’s also known as Gu Ailing. However, she continues to live in the US. How Ronaldo lit up the world’s tallest building for his girlfriend’s birthday 2. She explained her decision to compete for China on Instagram View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eileen Gu 🖤🌈🧊🐲 (@eileen_gu_) “I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings,” she wrote in the June 2019 post. “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mum was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love.” She is slated to compete in three events at the Beijing Olympics – the women’s freeski half-pipe, slopestyle, and big air – winning gold in the women’s big air on February 8. 3. She was the first woman to land a double cork 1440 The double cork 1440 is a freestyle skiing trick that incorporates four full 360s and two off-axis rotations in the air. Gu was also the only woman to compete in three disciplines in the X Games Aspen 2021, where she bagged gold in the women’s superpipe and slopestyle, and a bronze in big air. A two-time world champion in half-pipe and slopestyle, which she earned at the 2021 World Championships, she was widely considered one of China’s best hopes to clinch gold in the Olympic ski events going into the Games. Meet Princess Fadzilah of Brunei – whose 10-day wedding just kicked off The New York Times describes her training regimen, which includes glacial training in alpine villages in Switzerland, as “relentless”. She trains on weekdays but flies around the world for photoshoots on weekends, the High Snobiety website reported. In addition to being a sports icon, Gu is also a prominent figure on social media, amassing over two million fans on Weibo. And her popularity isn’t just in China. She also has more than 324,000 followers on Instagram and more than 113,000 on TikTok. 4. As her popularity grows, so do her endorsements Gu has racked up sponsors in the US and China alike. She has more than 20 sponsorship deals in China alone, according to Campaign Asia. Red Bull and Beats by Dre number among her American sponsors, and among her Chinese sponsors are the Bank of China, China Mobile and Mengniu, a dairy company. These endorsement deals are said to be worth around US$2.5 million, according to Shanghai-based media outlet Yicai Global. Some experts estimated her earnings from brand sponsorships in 2021 alone to be worth more than 100 million Chinese yuan, or about US$15.8 million, per the report. 5. She is also a model who has worked with numerous fashion houses View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eileen Gu 🖤🌈🧊🐲 (@eileen_gu_) The teen has starred in campaigns for luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co and Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen. Gu has also made appearances on the covers of magazines like L’Officiel , Vogue and Elle . 6. She is a star student She scored 1580 on her SATs, which ranks her among the 99th percentile of students in the US. She was the first student to graduate a year ahead at the San Francisco University High School, a private school that charges over US$54,000 annually, per The New York Times . She later received an offer from Stanford University, and is slated to graduate with the class of 2026. 7. Her mother Yan Gu has multiple degrees and works as a venture capitalist in China Before Gu’s mother moved to the US, she studied chemistry and biochemistry at Peking University. She then completed a master’s degree at Auburn University, followed by further studies at Rockefeller University and Stanford Graduate School of Business, her LinkedIn profile shows. Novak Djokovic and 5 other athletes who refused the Covid-19 vaccine Gu’s father, whom she does not speak about publicly, graduated from Harvard, according to The New York Times . 8. Gu is the youngest person to ever be included in the Forbes China 30 Under 30 She was 17 years old when she was included in the exclusive list of the most influential people in Chinese entertainment in 2020. Gu wrote on social media upon receiving the honour: “So beyond grateful and humbled be the youngest person listed in the China Forbes 2020 list.” Among her other accolades are a 2022 ESPY award nomination in the best athlete, women’s action sports category. 9. Not everyone is happy with her decision to represent China Chinese media outlets have been hailing Gu as the “next Yao Ming” and a “snow princess set to shine at home Olympics”. But some US skiers, like Jen Hudak, a former Winter X Games champion, said Gu was “opportunistic” for deciding to compete for China. As China does not recognise dual citizenship , Gu has not explicitly spoken about what citizenship she holds. “I’m fully American and look and speak the way I do,” she said. “Nobody can deny I’m American. When I go to China, nobody can deny I’m Chinese because I’m fluent in the language and culture and completely identify as such.” This article originally appeared on Insider . Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .