25 February,2026 08:34 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
China’s Eileen Gu with her three medals at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, recently. Pic/Getty Images
1 Chinese-American skier Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco on September 3, 2003
2 Her full name, Eileen Feng Gu, is a combination of the surnames of her mother (Gu) and grandmother (Feng)
3 Her mother, Yan Gu, emigrated from China to the USA in the early 1990s
4 Gu was raised in the United States by her mother and grandmother Feng Guozhen
5 She began skiing at three, near Lake Tahoe, where her mother worked part-time as a ski instructor
6 Gu also ran cross-country and studied classical piano as a kid, but focused fully on skiing when she was a teenager
7 Gu began her career with slopestyle and once she was comfortable performing acrobatic jumps, began participating in halfpipe events (see box for event descriptions)
8 Gu started competing in international events in the 2017-18 season
9 In June 2019, Gu, then 15, announced she'd represent China instead of USA internationally
10 She first caught the eye at the 2020 Lausanne Winter Youth Olympics, where she won two gold (halfpipe, big air) and one silver (slopestyle)
11 At the 2021 Aspen World Championships, she won two gold (halfpipe, slopestyle) and one bronze (big Air)
12 At the 2021 Aspen Winter X Games, she claimed two gold (superpipe, slopestyle) and one bronze (big air)
13 At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics she clinched two gold (halfpipe, big air) and one silver (slopestyle)
14 After her success at the 2022 Beijing Games, Gu took to modelling and worked with many top international brands
15 Gu is pursuing quantum physics as a full-time student at California's Stanford University
16 She also completed a term exchange at Oxford University in 2024
17 At the 2024 Aspen Winter X Games, Gu won a gold in the superpipe event
18 In 2025, she was the fourth-highest earning female athlete in the world, with an annual income of approximately $23 million
19 At the recent 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Gu won a gold (halfpipe) and two silver medals (big air, slopestyle) to cement herself as the most decorated freeskier of all time with six Olympic medals
20 Gu's grandmother, who was a big part of her life growing up, passed away shortly after she defended her halfpipe title at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Slopestyle: Athletes ski down a course laden with jumps and rails, doing tricks for which they are judged based on execution, difficulty, and variety.
Halfpipe: Skiers perform several tricks while traveling down and up on either side of a curved slope with steep walls.
Big Air: Skiers perform a spectacular trick combination after launching off a large ramp.
Superpipe: A freestyle skiing event where athletes perform tricks in an oversized U-shaped, snow-walled halfpipe.
