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Eileen Feng Gu (born September 3, 2003), also known by her
Chinese name
Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are ofte ...
Gu Ailing ( zh, s=谷爱凌), is an American-born
freestyle skier
Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...
. She has competed for China in
halfpipe
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, Inline skating, skating, and scooter riding.
Overview
The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially t ...
,
slopestyle
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...
, and
big air
Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps ...
events since 2019.
At age 18, Gu became the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing after winning gold medals in
big air
Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps ...
and
halfpipe
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, Inline skating, skating, and scooter riding.
Overview
The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially t ...
and a silver medal in
slopestyle
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...
at the
2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She is the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics. Owing to geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, her decision to switch from Team USA to China drew international attention.
In China, she is nicknamed "Frog Princess" (青蛙公主), which she uses on her Chinese social media accounts. The nickname comes from a green helmet she once wore during competition.
''Time'' named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world under 'Pioneers' category on its
annual list in 2022.
Early life and education
Eileen Gu was born on September 3, 2003, in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States,
to a Chinese
first-generation immigrant mother, Yan Gu (), and an American father. Chinese media refers to her father as a
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
graduate; Gu has declined to comment about him.
Her mother gave birth to Gu at the age of 40 and raised her as a single parent.
A member of the
short-track speed skating team and a ski coach, her mother attended
Peking University in the 1980s
for her undergraduate and master's degrees in
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
. Yan emigrated to the United States as a student in her twenties, enrolling at
Auburn University and
Rockefeller University. To pursue an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
at
Stanford University, she moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, where she enrolled Gu in ski lessons at
Lake Tahoe and thereby, according to Gu, "accidentally created a pro skier."
Yan had a career working for U.S. investment banks and as a
venture capitalist between China and California.
Gu grew up in San Francisco's
Sea Cliff
Seacliff or Sea Cliff or Sea Cliffe may refer to:
;Places
''Australia''
*Seacliff, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
* Seacliff Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide
*Sea Cliff Bridge, in Illawarra, New South Wales
''New Zealand''
*Seacl ...
neighborhood.
She attended private K-8
Katherine Delmar Burke School and later
San Francisco University High School
San Francisco University High School is a private college preparatory high school located in San Francisco, California. The school was opened in 1975.
Facilities and campus
The school is made up of four buildings, commonly referred to as Upper, ...
. Every summer, Gu would fly to
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
to attend
cram school for mathematics. She scored 1580 out of 1600 on her
SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
.
In 2021, Gu graduated early from high school. She earned early admittance to
Stanford University, her mother's alma mater, in December 2020,
and began her studies in the fall of 2022.
Nationality and citizenship
Gu competed for the United States at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup. She has competed for China since June 2019 after requesting a change of nation with the
International Ski Federation.
Her goal was to compete for China in the
2022 Winter Olympics.
She announced the change on 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."
Gu has declined to disclose her nationality. At a press conference during the 2022 Winter Olympics, Gu sidestepped six different attempts from international reporters to clarify her nationality. Gu was born a U.S. citizen. In contrast to the United States,
Chinese nationality law
Chinese nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into ...
does not recognize
dual nationality/citizenship.
The Chinese Consulate General in New York told the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
that Gu would have to have been naturalized or gained permanent residency status in China to compete for its team,
though only
naturalization, not
permanent residency
Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with suc ...
, would confer nationality and a passport as required by the sport governing bodies. The
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
confirmed that the
Chinese Olympic Committee
The Chinese Olympic Committee (; IOC code: CHN) has been the officially designated body of the People's Republic of China (PRC) regarding the Olympic Games and other affiliated international sport federations since 1979, when the Nagoya Resol ...
had presented it with a copy of her Chinese passport as proof of Chinese nationality acquired via naturalization in 2019. There is no evidence that she has given up U.S. citizenship for if she did, her name would have publicly appeared on the United States list of expatriated individuals. Gu referred to herself as American in an interview in May 2022. In other interviews, Gu has said, "Nobody can deny I'm American, nobody can deny I'm Chinese," and "When I'm in the U.S., I'm American, but when I'm in China, I'm Chinese."
Sports career
In 2021, Gu became the first woman to land a forward double cork 1440 in competition history.
Training
* Wy’East Mountain Academy - a training facility for Olympic skiers such as
Nick Goepper
Nicholas Charles Goepper (born March 14, 1994) is an American Olympic freestyle skier. Representing the United States of America, Goepper won a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and won a silver medal at both the 2018 Wi ...
and
Alex Beaulieu.
According to Mike Hanley, head of school at Wy’East Mountain Academy, Gu's mother paid for the coaching and travel, "These sports are very expensive. So many of the Americans ask for favors. Yan was willing to pay, which is very rare in the action sports industry. She paid for coaching and travel.”
* Woodward Tahoe - a 33,000 square foot Indoor Action Sports Hub training next generation athletes in snowboard, freeski, skateboard, BMX, freestyle MTB, and cheer.
* Jamie Melton, Head coach of the Chinese National Slopestyle and Big Air Training Team, Former Action Sports Coach at Woodward Tahoe. Melton has coached Gu since she was 10 years old.
* Brad Prosser, New Zealand coach - Prosser met Gu when she was around 11 years old. In 2018, he became the technical coach guide to the Chinese national team.
* Misra Noto Torniainen - Gu's personal coach for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the former coach of the Swiss freeski team. Torniainen had coached Olympic medalists
Sarah Höfflin and
Mathilde Gremaud
Mathilde Gremaud (born 8 February 2000) is an Olympic Swiss freestyle skier and eight time X Games medalist. On February 28, 2023, she became the first freestyle skier to hold both slopestyle World and Olympic Champion titles after winning gold ...
for the
2018 Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics ( ko, 2018년 동계 올림픽, Icheon sip-pal nyeon Donggye Ollimpik), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (french: Les XXIIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver; ko, 제23회 동계 올림픽, Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpi ...
.
X Games
At the
2021 Winter X Games, Gu won a bronze medal in
Big Air
Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps ...
and two gold medals in
SuperPipe
A superpipe is a large halfpipe structure used in extreme sports such as snowboarding, freestyle skiing, skateboarding, scooters, freestyle BMX and vert skating.
Overview
For winter sports, the term ''superpipe'' is used to describe a halfpipe ...
and
Slopestyle
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...
, 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.
World Championships
Gu competed at the
FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021
The 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Idre, Rogla, Almaty and Aspen with the ski and snowboard cross events held in Idre from 11 to 13 February 2021, the parallel and giant slalom snowboard in Rogla from ...
, 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, Gu became the youngest gold medalist in freestyle skiing, winning the
big air
Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps ...
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
Tess Ledeux (born 23 November 2001) is a French freestyle skier who competes internationally.
She competed for France at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 in Sierra Nevada, Spain, where she won a gold medal in slo ...
first successfully completed a double cork 1620 on 21 January 2022 at the
X Games
The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...
in Aspen, Colorado and 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
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...
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
The 2022 ESPY Awards was the 30th annual ceremony of the ESPY Award, held on July 20, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and broadcast on ABC. NBA player Stephen Curry served as the host.
Winners and nominees
Honorary awards
;Jimm ...
.
World Cup results
Gu ended the
2021-2022 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 claimed her second crystal globe in the same season, placing first in Park & Pipe overall.
All results are sourced from the
International Ski Federation.
* 8 wins: 5
Halfpipe
A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, Inline skating, skating, and scooter riding.
Overview
The structure resembles a cross-section of a swimming pool, essentially t ...
, 2
Slopestyle
Slopestyle is a winter sport in which athletes ski or snowboard down a course including a variety of obstacles including rails, jumps and other terrain park features. Points are scored for amplitude, originality and quality of tricks. The disc ...
, 1
Big Air
Big air is a high-injury-risk sports discipline where the competitor rides a vehicle, such as a motocross motorcycle, a skateboard, a snowboard, or a pair of skis, down a hill or ramp and performs aerial tricks after launching off very large jumps ...
* 12 podiums: 6 Halfpipe, 5 Slopestyle, 1 Big Air
Results current through 1 February 2022.
Endorsements and modeling career
Even before the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Gu was the face of multiple brands in China.
Gu fronts at least 23 brands in China across sports, fashion, and banking.
According to marketing expert Jerome Lau, "Gu can be perceived as a
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
for brands to resonate with the consumers in the China market."
Gu's status as a leading sports star in China is reported to have earned her over US$30 million in endorsements and advertising contracts.
According to media reports, her average fee per endorsement increased from $1 million in 2021 to $2 to $2.5 million in 2022.
Gu is represented by
IMG Models
IMG Models is an international modeling agency headquartered in New York City and with additional offices in London, Los Angeles, Milan, Paris, and Sydney. It is a subsidiary of the talent management company International Management Group. The com ...
.
She has appeared on the covers of magazines such as the Chinese editions of ''
Harper's Bazaar'', ''
Elle
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...
'', ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
'', ''
GQ'', ''
Marie Claire'', ''
V'', ''
L'Officiel
''L'Officiel'' () is a French fashion magazine with a USA edition. It has been published in Paris since 1921 and targets upper-income, educated women aged from 25 to 49. In 2006, it had a circulation of 101,719. A men's edition of ''L'Officiel'', ' ...
'', and ''
Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
''.
Gu has been featured in campaigns for Western luxury brands such as
Fendi
Fendi () is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house producing fur, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and accessories. Founded in Rome in 1925, Fendi is known for its fur, fur accessories, and leather goods. ...
,
Gucci
Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragran ...
,
IWC Schaffhausen,
Tiffany & Co., and
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...
; she is a brand ambassador for the latter three.
She is a founding member of
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer known for high visibility marketing and branding, starting with a popular catalog and followed by an annual fashion show with supermodels dubbed Angels. As the largest ...
's VS Collective and a
Red Bull sponsored athlete.
Personal life
Gu was raised by her mother and maternal grandparents. Her grandfather was the chief electrical engineer of the
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is a ministry of the People's Republic of China which provides housing and regulates the state construction activities in Mainland China. It was formerly known as the Ministry of Construction ...
of China.
She speaks fluent
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
and English.
She plays the piano as a hobby.
In May 2022, Gu mentioned that she had recently converted to
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
.
Social and political views
During the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Gu has spoken out against anti-Asian racism after the
2021 Atlanta spa shootings
On March 16, 2021, a shooting spree occurred at three spas or massage parlors in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Eight people were killed, six of whom were women of Asian descent, and one other person was wounded.
...
and the
killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee.
She has described her own experience with
anti-Asian racism, having endured a man screaming obscenities about "Asians infecting America" with COVID-19 at her and her grandmother in a shop.
Gu supports the
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
movement,
as well as
Roe v. Wade
''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and s ...
stating at an Aspen Ideas Festival that "when I think about my friends, my peers, myself as young female athletes and the amount of time that we have to put into our work and into training, and you know what taking a season off or taking a year off to carry an unwanted pregnancy will do to our careers and to our ambitions is absolutely devastating”. Gu has largely declined to comment on social and political topics involving China, including the country's
human rights record.
Gu's agent Tom Yaps told ''The Economist'' that Gu's mother, Yan Gu, feared that "if
ileenparticipates in an article that has two paragraphs critical of China and human rights, that would put her in jeopardy over there. One thing and a career is ruined."
See also
*
List of Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing
Freestyle skiing is one of the six skiing disciplines contested at the Winter Olympic Games, and one of the youngest. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics featured Nordic skiing disciplines (cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combine ...
*
List of Youth Olympic Games gold medalists who won Olympic gold medals
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Eileen
Living people
2003 births
Sportspeople from San Francisco
Chinese-American culture in San Francisco
Chinese female freestyle skiers
Freestyle skiers at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics
Youth Olympic gold medalists for China
X Games athletes
Freestyle skiers at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Olympic freestyle skiers of China
Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for China
Olympic silver medalists for China
Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing
Chinese people of American descent
American models of Chinese descent
American sportswomen
American sportswomen of Chinese descent
IMG Models models