In China, she is affectionately nicknamed “the Frog Princess”, in reference to a green helmet that she had worn during a competition. At just 18 years old, the freestyle skier Eileen Gu (Gu Ailing, in Chinese) intends to take advantage of the Beijing Olympics, which take place until February 20, to reach the rank of queen of her discipline. “Any athlete who participates in the Olympics wants to win gold”, she told the International Olympic Committee website in February 2021.
On the side of the Middle Kingdom, we hope for no less. Because if Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco, California, and still lives in the United States, it is under the colors of the host country that she participates in this XXIVand edition of the Winter Games. The young woman appears as the best hope for the coronation of a Chinese national team which had managed to glean only one Olympic title – that of Dajing Wu in short-track – in 2018, in Pyeongchang (South Korea).
Winner of the 2021-2022 World Cup in the half-pipe, and undefeated since the start of the season in this specialty which consists of performing several acrobatic figures in a half-cylinder of snow, she also accumulates podiums in big air (s on a springboard to perform an acrobatic trick) and in slopestyle (run down six modules, bumps, ramps and springboards while performing tricks). At the Games, she will be at the start of these three events.
“The Chinese authorities hope that it will bring new sporting success to the nation”, sums up Jung-Woo Lee, lecturer in sports and leisure policy at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).
Multi-medal winner and brilliant student
Since she decided, in 2019, to compete under the banner of her mother’s country of origin, after having participated in a few competitions with the American national team, the teenager has accumulated success.
In 2020, at the Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne (Switzerland), she won three medals – gold in half-pipe and big air, silver in slopestyle. A year later, for her first participation in the X-Games (the flagship competition of extreme sports), in Aspen (United States), she climbed three times on the podium, in particular on the highest step in the super-pipe. and slopestyle. Unheard of for a “beginner” and a skier representing China. In March of the same year, during the world championships, she achieved a new treble – gold in half-pipe and slopestyle, bronze in big air – with, as a result, the first world titles in freestyle skiing for the Middle Kingdom.
Eileen Gu combines the performances to which is attached the qualifier “first to…”. Like in November 2021 when she performed a double cork 1440 – four 360-degree rotations, including two upside-down rotations, on the sidelines of training in Stubai, Austria. Unprecedented performance for a female athlete.
The young woman, of English mother tongue, is fluent in Mandarin, regularly poses on the cover of fashion magazines and is a brilliant student – she was admitted to the prestigious Stanford University in the United States. So many assets that have made it the centerpiece of Beijing’s outreach strategy. Eileen Gu is “virtually the face of the Chinese team for these Olympics”, observes Jung-Woo Lee. And the skier is well aware of this. In an interview with the Chinese national news agency Xinhua in 2019, she explained that her decision to compete for China was partly motivated by the authorities’ plan to attract 300 million people to ice sports and to snow. “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people in the country where my mother was born, she wrote on the social network Instagram. If I can help inspire a young girl to break down a boundary, my wishes will have come true. »
Target of harsh criticism
In her communication online and in the media, Eileen Gu disclaims any political issue. A balancing act as relations between the two world powers are increasingly tense and the United States has decided to observe a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games to denounce human rights violations in China.
In March 2021, the teenager confided to the South China Morning Post, having received “death threats” when announcing his decision to compete under the Chinese banner. “Since I was little, I have always said: when I am in the United States, I am American. When I’m in China, I’m Chinese. I’m proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringing.”, she hammered during a report on the American sports channel ESPN in January 2020.
Present in Europe and the United States since the resumption of the season in September 2021, it has not been able to benefit from its status as representative of the host country to test the sites on which the Olympic fortnight will take place. “We are doing a discipline where it is not a huge advantage, anyway”, sweeps the French Tess Ledeux, one of her rivals in big air and slopestyle.
For La Plagnarde, on the other hand, there is no doubt: the Chinese public – only a handful of people will be authorized in the stands, by invitation, due to health restrictions – will be behind their protege. “In our community, we consider her almost more like an American, and she has only been racing for China for a short time. But, for the Chinese, it has an incredible image and it is highly anticipated. Especially since she’s one of the medal-winning athletes, and, we’re not going to lie to each other, they don’t have many. »