Eileen Gu

Eileen Feng Gu (born September 3, 2003), also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing ( zh, s=谷爱凌), is an American-born freestyle skier. She has competed for China in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events since 2019.

At age 18, Gu 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. 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, California, 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 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. Yan emigrated to the United States as a student in her twenties, enrolling at Auburn University and Rockefeller University. To pursue an MBA at Stanford University, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, 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 neighborhood. She attended private K-8 Katherine Delmar Burke School and later San Francisco University High School. Every summer, Gu would fly to Beijing to attend cram school for mathematics. She scored 1580 out of 1600 on her SAT. 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 does not recognize dual nationality/citizenship. The Chinese Consulate General in New York told the BBC
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