Profile | Eileen Gu, the part-time teen model and world champion skier tasked with leading China’s Winter Olympics medal push

From winning historic gold medals to dealing with anti-Asian racism, Gu wants to pave the way for China’s next generation of female skiers
Touted as a half-pipe shoo-in at next month’s Games, here’s what you need to know about her Chinese heritage and values

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Mia CastagnoneandAndrew McNicol

Published: 8:15pm, 20 Jan 2022

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Two years ago, Eileen Gu Ailing made a decision that may have unknowingly changed the course of freestyle skiing.

The then-15-year-old swapped her Team USA colours in favour of representing her mother’s birthplace of China, explaining on Instagram that it was a chance to “inspire millions of young people where my mom was born” and “promote the sport I love”.

Though she has often reiterated her pride for her American upbringing and Chinese heritage, Gu hoped to use her generational talents and ever-rising platform to help push China’s ambition of putting 300 million people into ice and snow sports.

China confirmed in January it had reached the milestone ahead of its home Beijing 2022 Winter Games (February 4 to 20), while “snow princess” Gu is fast becoming a household name and has graced the covers of several fashion magazines – but the world champion teen is just getting started.

Eileen Gu on a training run at the US Grand Prix in California. Photo: AFP

US-born Gu, 18, speaks fluent English and Mandarin. Beijing-native mother Yan was always keen to imprint Chinese culture and values on her daughter having emigrated to the States and raising her in San Francisco.

Aside from the past two pandemic-ridden years, they have been returning to China every summer since Gu was a child. Her mixed-race appearance would gain attention from the locals – which upset her at first – but she has since embraced both cultures under the mantra “I feel Chinese in China, and American in America”.

Who is Chinese-American ski prodigy Eileen Gu?

Gu is also proudly bearing the flag for Chinese females in a sport that is heavily dominated by men. Though she still sees herself as a minority in the sport, she hopes to use it as a force to unite different cultures.

On a trip to Switzerland, Gu taught her skiing teammates how to prepare traditional dumplings. Since the group hailed from different continents, she suggested they prepared different cuisines each night.

“Leading up to Beijing 2022, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring up more energy around the sports culture in China, especially around younger girls,” Gu told Radii China.

Eileen Gu, of China, after winning the Women’s Freeski Halfpipe competition at the US Grand Prix in California. Photo: AFP

Gu previously recalled to the Post that she would convince her Chinese summer school friends, who were preparing for the stressful National College Entrance Examinations, to let off some steam in a local basketball team despite being the only girls.

Amid the rise of anti-Asian sentiments in the US last year, Gu actively spoke out on her social media platforms to raise awareness of an issue close to her heart.

Last year, Gu and her grandmother, Guo Zhengshen were left traumatised after experiencing a racially motivated verbal attack in a supermarket.

Chinese-American skier Gu laments ‘absurd’ violence towards Asian-Americans

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt fear like that in my entire life,” she told the Post. “I grabbed my grandma and we ran out. That was the moment I realised how close to home it hit -that anybody can be affected just because of the way they look.”

Gu has also been a strong advocate for gender equality and representation of women in sports. She intends to study relevant courses at her deferred Stanford University programme, and hopes to use her voice to introduce snow sports to more girls in China.

She cites her mum and grandmother as “by far the biggest influences in my life” for instilling a “strong, fierce, competitive” nature from youth.

A delivery worker rides a vehicle pasts an advertisement featuring Chinese freestyle skier Eileen Gu in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Her mother is also an avid skier and took Gu on her first ski adventure when she was just three months old, enrolling her daughter in ski school at the age of three. Gu is often seen video-calling her mother and grandmother between competition events.

Gu, a two-time Youth Olympic champion, is considered to be a triple Beijing Olympic threat in the half-pipe, slopestyle and big air events.

Her 2021 form is unmatched, opening the year with two golds at the Winter X Games, becoming the first female rookie to win two golds and the first Chinese competitor to win gold in the event’s history.

She repeated the feat at the 2021 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in Aspen, becoming the first and only Chinese freeskier to win multiple golds. Gu did so with a broken finger, not to mention her still-semi-pro athlete status.

To end the year, Gu also became the first women’s skier to land a double cork 1440 in training in Austria. Having turned pro, she has continued her unbeaten half-pipe form into the new year’s pre-Olympic World Cup series.

Slope domination aside, Gu’s long-term goal is to inspire and empower a new generation of Chinese women’s skiers, maintain her already thriving modelling career, and act as a cultural bridge between China and the US. Her first act of diplomacy may well be as Team China’s Olympic flag-bearer.