Eileen Gu was born in the USA, has been competing for China since 2019 and has already won five Olympic medals in her career. Who is the woman who is often referred to in the media as the snow princess and earns more than any other Olympic participant?
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Freestyle superstar Eileen Gu won two silver medals at this year’s Winter Games. Four years ago, she already won two gold and one silver Olympic medal.With estimated annual earnings of the equivalent of 17.82 million francs, the 22-year-old tops the Winter Games salary rankings.In addition to her sports career, Gu is a successful model, studies quantum physics at Stanford University and is considered one of the most influential and marketable sportswomen ever.
Eileen Gu is 22 years old and can already look back on an incredibly successful career. Last week, she won silver in her first big air contest in four years behind Megan Oldham from Canada. A few days earlier, she also took second place in slopestyle behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud.
At the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, she won gold twice and silver once – since then, Gu, who was born in the USA and competes for China, has enjoyed hero status. On Saturday, the snow princess is aiming to defend her title in the halfpipe. However, with five Olympic medals to her name, she is already the best freestyler in history.
Eileen Gu has already won a total of five Olympic medals.
Picture:
Keystone
Nobody deserves more
In sporting terms, some freestylers can currently rival Gu, but in terms of annual salary, she is the lone leader at these Winter Games – across all sports and genders. According to Forbes, she even outdoes the NHL stars with their million-dollar contracts.
Gu is said to earn the equivalent of 17.82 million francs. In comparison: US star Lindsey Vonn, the tragic figure of these games, earns around 6 million, Mikaela Shiffrin around 5.5 million and therefore not even a third as much as Gu. NHL star Austin Matthews, who tops the men’s rankings, is set to earn between 11.6 and 15.4 francs.
Of course, this is not due to the prize money, which only adds around 77,140 francs to Gu’s account. But contracts with luxury brands such as Porsche, Louis Vitton, Gucci and Red Bull as well as several Chinese companies really pay off. Gu also works as a model, has strolled down international catwalks and graced the covers of prestigious magazines such as “Time Magazine”. She has millions of fans around the world on social media.
However, Gu, who is studying quantum physics at Stanford University, refuses to be pigeonholed. She told Time Magazine: “I’m a full-time student and very sporty. I can talk to a physicist and defend my arguments, and the next day you might see me walking down the catwalk. I find that quite revolutionary, especially as a young person. Because this versatility often occurs at different stages of life.”