Who is Eileen Gu, Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 champion? 9 facts about the teen gold medallist freeskier and Louis Vuitton model who chose China over the US
- Freestyle skier Eileen Gu, 18, is one of China’s biggest stars at the Winter Olympics and won historic gold in the big air at the Beijing 2022 Games
- Dubbed China’s ‘Snow Princess’, the teenage talent aced her SATS to graduate high school early and has modelled for Chanel, Victoria’s Secret and the cover of Vogue China
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.
2. She explained her decision to compete for China on Instagram
“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
