Born and raised in California, the 18-year-old skier represents China at the Winter Olympics, where she is expected to be a pop star.
In the streets of Beijing, you can’t miss it. His face is plastered on bus stops or storefronts. Proof of a new notoriety: at 18, Eileen Gu is the emerging star of Chinese winter sport. The freestyle skier competes in the Olympics in three categories (slopestyle, big air and halfpipe), each time with the status of favorite. A boon for a nation that has historically been mediocre at the Winter Olympics: China has never won more than five gold medals in this competition.
Eileen Gu was not, however, destined to wear the sporting colors of the Middle Kingdom. Born in California, to an American father and a Chinese mother who enrolled her in skiing when she was only 3 years old, the young woman only announced her preference for China in 2019, at the 15 years old. “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mother was born, during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, is a unique opportunity to help promote the sport I love.“, she had then explained. His decision had earned him death threats and accusations of treachery on social networks, some Internet users accusing him of having chosen China for purely financial reasons.
Since declaring her love for China, Eileen Gu has indeed signed fabulous sponsorship contracts with several large national companies, from China Mobile to the clothing brand Anta Sports and the e-commerce giant JD. com. Fluent in both English and Mandarin, the athlete has also associated herself with Western multinationals charmed by her success on skis and on social networks (she has more than 215,000 subscribers on Instagram), such as Red Bull or Cadillac. Enough to amass a considerable fortune, which could still grow after the Olympics: according to figures quoted by the Bloomberg agency, a gold medal in Beijing could earn him more than 10 million dollars (8.8 million euros ) additional sponsorship contracts.
After the US government announced its refusal to send representatives to the Olympics because of China’s policy of mass internment of the Uyghur Muslim minority, Eileen Gu was called upon to speak out about human rights violations. accused the government of Xi Jinping. But the skier, cautious and perhaps afraid of seeing her generous sponsors leave, refuses to talk politics. In recent months, she has not given an interview to the general American press, reserving her presence for the beauty magazines which she has made the front page of since she began a career in modeling which brought her to the rank of Louis Vuitton muse. “I’m an athlete, so I’m just doing what I love and trying to tell my own story,” she repeats to avoid disturbing questions.
In Beijing, for its first Olympic Games, “the snow princess“, as her supporters call her, will have to satisfy the immense hopes placed in her by the Chinese people. World slopestyle and halfpipe champion and bronze medalist in big air in March 2021, winner of five of the last six World Cup events she has competed in, the young woman already has a long track record. If she triumphs again, it will also be a victory for the Chinese executive, which has invested considerable sums to build a delegation capable of shining at the Olympic Games. Eileen Gu, meanwhile, will return to the United States once the competition is over. She will be able to begin her studies at Stanford University, where she plans to take courses in diplomacy or international relations.