Eileen Gu

Eileen Feng Gu (born September 3, 2003), also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing (Chinese: 谷爱凌), is a Chinese-American freestyle skier and model. She has represented China in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events since the 2018–19 season. As of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Gu is the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history.

Born and raised in the United States, Gu began competing for China in 2019. At age 18, she became the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing after winning gold medals in big air and halfpipe, and a silver medal in slopestyle, at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She is the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics.

At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Gu won gold in women's halfpipe and two additional silver medals in big air and slopestyle, setting the Olympic medal record in freestyle skiing, surpassing all previous competitors regardless of gender.

Time named Gu as one of the 100 most influential people in the world under its Pioneers category on its annual list in 2022. She was subsequently featured on the magazine's February 9, 2026 edition. She was the fourth-highest earning female athlete in the world in 2025.

Early life and education

Eileen Gu was born on September 3, 2003, in San Francisco, California, United States. Her mother, Yan Gu (Chinese: 谷燕; pinyin: Gǔ Yàn), is a first-generation Chinese immigrant to the United States. Her father is American. Her maternal grandfather was the chief electrical engineer of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China.

Yan studied chemistry and biochemistry and was a member of the short-track speed skating team at Peking University in the 1980s. After moving to the United States, she earned a master's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Auburn University and an MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Yan raised her daughter as a single mother in San Francisco's Sea Cliff neighborhood. At three years old, Gu began skiing in Lake Tahoe, where Yan once worked as a part-time ski instructor. She joined the Northstar California Resort free-ski team at eight and won her first national championship at nine.

Gu attended primary and middle school at the Katherine Delmar Burke School and went to high school at San Francisco University High. Every summer, she attended cram school in Beijing for mathematics. She scored 1580 out of 1600 on the SAT.

Gu earned early admittance to Stanford University in December 2020. She entered the freshman class in 2022, the same year she was presented as a debutante at Le Bal des débutantes in Paris. While at Stanford, she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and studied abroad at Oxford University's Magdalen College. An international relations major, Gu took time off in the 2025–26 academic year to prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Sports career

In 2021, Gu became the first woman to land a forward double cork 1440 in competition history.

Coaches and training

Gu's coaches have included Jamie Melton, head coach of the Chinese National Slopestyle and Big Air Training Team for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and Brad Prosser, who met Gu when she was ten. In 2018, he became the technical coach guide to the Chinese national team for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Her personal coach for the 2022 Olympics was Misra Noto Torniainen, the former coach of the Swiss freeski team. Torniainen coached Olympic medalists Sarah Höfflin and Mathilde Gremaud for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In early 2025, the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau released a public budget about allocating US$6.6 million for the training of Gu and fellow US-born athlete Zhu Yi ahead of the 2026 Milan games though later their names were removed from the document and articles on the topic were censored on several Chinese websites. The total payment from Beijing's sports bureau for Gu and Zhu was $14 million over the past three years prior to the 2026 games.

X Games

At the 2021 Winter X Games, Gu won a bronze medal in Big Air and two gold medals in SuperPipe and Slopestyle, becoming the first rookie to win a gold medal in Women's Ski SuperPipe, the first rookie to medal in three events, and the first athlete representing China to win a gold medal at the X Games.

At the 2024 Winter X Games, Gu won gold in SuperPipe despite injuring her right hip during the X Games Slopestyle training. She wrote "Pain is Temporary" on her hand, and showed it to the cameras during the finals. Due to the pain, she did not participate in Slopestyle.

World Championships

Gu competed at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021, winning two gold medals in Freeski Halfpipe and Freeski Slopestyle and a bronze medal in Freeski Big Air. Gu became the first freeskier to win two golds at the FIS Freeski World Championship. She competed without poles for the first time due to a broken hand, having fractured a finger and tearing the UCL in her thumb.

2022 Winter Olympics

At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Gu became the youngest gold medalist in freestyle skiing, winning the big air freestyle skiing event, the first to be held at the Olympics. Gu landed a double cork 1620, her first attempt in competition. She was the second woman to land the trick and the first woman to land a left-turn 1620; Tess Ledeux first successfully completed a double cork 1620 on 21 January 2022, at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado, Gu landed it again in her first run of the big air final at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Gu won the silver medal in the slopestyle event. She won a second gold medal in the women's freeski halfpipe competition, becoming the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a Winter Olympics. She was awarded the Best Breakthrough Athlete and Best Female Action Sports Athlete ESPY Awards at the 2022 ESPY Awards.

World Cup results

Gu ended the 2021–22 World Cup season with a perfect record in women's halfpipe, taking her first career crystal globe and becoming the first freestyle skier to win four consecutive World Cup competitions. She won a second crystal globe during the same season, placing first in park and pike overall.

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation.

• 8 wins: 5 Halfpipe, 2 Slopestyle, 1 Big Air
• 12 podiums: 6 Halfpipe, 5 Slopestyle, 1 Big Air

Results current through 1 February 2022.

2026 Winter Olympics

At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Eileen Gu competed in all three women's freestyle skiing disciplines: slopestyle, big air, and the freeski halfpipe, medaling in each. Gu secured silver medals in both slopestyle and big air, and won the gold medal in the halfpipe, defending her title from the 2022 Winter Olympics. Gu posted a top score of 94.75 in the halfpipe final, finishing ahead of compatriot Li Fanghui's score of 93.00 (silver) and Great Britain's Zoe Atkin's 92.50 (bronze).

With three medals won in Milan-Cortina and three from the 2022 Beijing Games, Gu's total of six Olympic gold or silver medals in six events made her the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history. Alongside Russian cross-country skier Lyubov Yegorova, Gu became the second athlete in history to earn either gold or silver in each of their first six individual Winter Olympic events.

Nationality and citizenship

Gu competed for the United States at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup. She began competing for China in June 2019 after requesting a change of nationality with the International Ski Federation. Her goal was to compete for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics. She announced the change on Weibo and Instagram, stating that through skiing she hopes "to help inspire millions of young people" in China and "to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations".

There has been considerable controversy related to Gu's citizenship and nationality. The Chinese Consulate General in New York told BBC News that Gu would need to be naturalized or gain permanent residency status in China to compete for its team; in the same article, it was reported that China's Ministry of Justice in 2020 broadened rules for foreigners, allowing people who achieved international recognition in sport, science, culture and other fields to obtain permanent residency. The International Olympic Committee requires that any competitor in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country which they are representing. In January 2024, Gu said that she planned to represent China at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

In an interview in May 2022, Gu referred to herself as an Asian American. In an interview with ESPN in 2021, she said: "Since I was little, I've always said when I'm in the U.S., I'm American, but when I'm in China, I'm Chinese." In 2022, in an interview with the South China Morning Post, she said: "My appearance and the way I speak are completely American. No one can deny that I am American. When I go to China, no one can deny that I am Chinese because I speak fluent Chinese, am familiar with the culture here, and fully identify as Chinese."