{"id":464817,"date":"2026-02-10T01:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/464817\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T01:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:26:08","slug":"if-eileen-gu-seems-to-have-it-all-its-because-she-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/464817\/","title":{"rendered":"If Eileen Gu seems to have it all, it\u2019s because she does"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China on the podium after the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.Fabrizio Troccoli\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Sheer physical talent does not solely define Olympic<\/a> heroes. The \u2018star\u2019 formula is also a blend of resolve in the face of setbacks, emotional control, charm, an absorbing backstory, sponsorship success, brand-name recognition, language eloquence, and \u2013 yes \u2013 glamour and good looks.<\/p>\n

At Milan Cortina, a few athletes check many or most of the boxes, none more so than Eileen Gu, the American-Chinese superstar freestyle skier who made her Milan Cortina Olympic debut on Monday. By then, fever for Lindsey Vonn, who crashed out of the women\u2019s downhill in Cortina on Sunday, had been quickly replaced by fever for Gu in Livigno.<\/p>\n

Gu won silver in the freestyle slopestyle event on a sunny afternoon, a disappointment for her but more than enough to boost her already-formidable fame. The second-place finish \u2013 Switzerland\u2019s Mathilde Gremaud took gold and bronze went to Canada\u2019s Megan Oldham \u2013 took Gu\u2019s lifetime Olympic medal tally to four. Not bad for a 22-year-old.<\/p>\n

If she seems to have it all, it\u2019s because she does: Talent, medals galore, youth, wealth, fame, telegenic good looks, and a formidable drive and passion for winning that has made her an inspiration among millions of young women and men \u2013 mostly women \u2013 all over the world. <\/p>\n

A woman friend of mine, who has a minor obsession with Gu, told me that Gu seems so perfect that she can\u2019t possibly be real. \u201cShe is likely a creation of China\u2019s secret AI and a 3D printer,\u201d she told me with a mix of respect and envy.<\/p>\n

Winter Olympics 2026: 10 athletes from around the world to watch at the Milan Cortina Games<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember the quote attributed to Gore Vidal? <\/p>\n

He said, \u201cIt is not enough that I succeed; others must also fail.\u201d Certainly, there are few Gu watchers who think she has had more than enough success for a dozen lifetimes and that it\u2019s time for her to crash, so to speak. But no one in Livigno would fit into that nasty category \u2013 they paid big bucks to see her. <\/p>\n

The audience was enraptured by the young woman and wanted her to win a fourth Olympic medal. Oldham\u2019s mother, Bonnie, certainly wanted her daughter to take the top prize but wished Gu well. \u201cYou can\u2019t help but love her,\u201d she told me just ahead of the slopestyle race. \u201cBut my query is this: I wonder whether the money will overtake her love of the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good question. Gu is one of the richest athletes on the planet even though she is, by professional sports standards, a mere toddler. Forbes magazine recently put her earnings in 2025 alone at US$23.1-million. You read that right \u2013 2025 alone. That put her in fourth spot globally among female athletes, behind the tennis stars Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. <\/p>\n

Almost none of her earnings come from \u2018on court\u2019 prize money from competitions. She got rich from \u2018off court\u2019 income, that is, a flurry of sponsorships made possible by her soaring commercial power, not just among kids, but also among rich consumers who buy expensive cars and jewelry.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Gu celebrates with her silver medal.Hannah Peters\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She is an IMG model and has strolled the runway for global brands such as Victoria\u2019s Secret and Louis Vuitton. She has also been paid gorgeously by Tiffany, Porsche, Red Bull, Bank of China and North Face. <\/p>\n

She has seven million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social-media platform, 2.1-million Instagram followers and has landed on the cover of Time, Vogue, Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazines. There is probably no more famous woman athlete her age on the planet. Teenagers who cannot identify some of the world\u2019s most successful woman politicians and and institutional officials \u2013 Ursula von der Leyen, Christine Lagarde and Giorgia Meloni, among them \u2013 know who Gu is.<\/p>\n

Gu\u2019s backstory makes her all the more fascinating to them. In brief \u2013 a library of books will no doubt be published about her \u2013 she was born in San Francisco to Yan Gu, a first-generation Chinese immigrant to the U.S., and a father who has never been identified. Gu began skiing at three years old and quickly proved be a sporting prodigy. She joined a freestyle team in California at 8 and won her first national championship a year later. <\/p>\n

Gu would spend summers in Beijing, where she became fluent in Mandarin. She was admitted to Stanford University, her mother\u2019s alma mater, to study international relations. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Gu competes during the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle finals.Abbie Parr\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Choosing to compete for China, not the U.S., added to her fame \u2013 and infamy among some Americans. She revealed she would compete for China in 2019, when she was 15, using Instagram to reveal her \u201cincredibly tough decision.\u201d She never fully explained why she chose China, though she clearly identifies as Chinese as much as she does American. Her move, of course, was condemned by the America-firsters at Fox News and elsewhere (China does not allow dual citizenship, but there is no indication she has relinquished her American one).<\/p>\n

Gu has reached the degree of wealth already where she would have trouble even spending the interest on her fortune, a nice problem to have. She has given little indication what she wants to do with her fortune, or even her career; to be fair, the baby millionaire is still a student.<\/p>\n

Milan Cortina put her under enormous pressure and proved that she was not, after all, made by the gods. She fell on her final run of three and settled for silver, denying her an upgrade from the Beijing Games. \u201cThe Olympics always come with this kind of pressure. It\u2019s really different from any other competition,\u201d she said after her podium appearance. <\/p>\n

She also admitted to competing \u201cwith the weight of two countries on my shoulders.\u201d <\/p>\n

The question is whether she has peaked and, if so, can she keep the money machine rolling \u2013 the podium has been the key to her financial success. Gu is not one to give up; she may take the view that building wealth is merely the pleasant byproduct of indulging her killer competitive instincts.<\/p>\n

Follow our live daily coverage<\/a> of the Winter Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China on the podium after the women’s freestyle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,2922,4963,187287,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-464817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-noastack","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-olympicstaff","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}