{"id":210769,"date":"2026-03-08T21:34:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210769\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T21:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:34:32","slug":"eileen-gu-gets-heros-welcome-in-hometown-of-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/210769\/","title":{"rendered":"Eileen Gu gets hero\u2019s welcome in hometown of San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eileen Gu gets hero\u2019s welcome in hometown of San Francisco<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olympic freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu returned to her hometown Saturday night and received loud cheers while serving as grand marshal of the annual Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

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The San Francisco native became one of the most talked-about athletes of the last two Winter Olympics after choosing to represent China rather than the United States on the global stage. The decision sparked criticism in some corners of American media even as Gu\u2019s international profile continued to grow.<\/p>\n

On Saturday evening in Chinatown, however, the atmosphere told a different story.<\/p>\n

Gu served as Grand Marshal of San Francisco\u2019s Chinese New Year Parade, one of the largest Lunar New Year celebrations outside of Asia. As the parade wound through the city streets, spectators leaned against barricades and lifted phones into the air hoping to capture a glimpse of the Olympic champion.<\/p>\n

Riding in the back of a red Mustang convertible, Gu smiled and waved<\/a> as the crowd called out her name. Parents lifted children onto their shoulders for a better view while cheers followed her car along the route.<\/p>\n

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Among the spectators were a number of excited middle school students from Katherine Delmar Burke School, where Gu graduated in 2017, cheering on their school\u2019s most famous alum.<\/p>\n

For many along the parade route, Gu\u2019s international identity was exactly what made the moment special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how she represents the city,\u201d one attendee said in video footage from the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cShe represents China and the U.S. It\u2019s very diverse. That\u2019s her identity, both countries, so she gets the best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the festivities, Eileen reflected on the honor during an interview with ABC7 in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a special thing to be Grand Marshal and be part of it,\u201d Gu said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 22 year old superstar also spoke about the connection she still feels to the city where she grew up.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in San Francisco, the Chinatown atmosphere is so special,\u201d Eileen said. \u201cEvery time I see the lanterns hanging and smell the food and see the people walking around, it reminds me of home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family traditions during the holiday remain meaningful as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese New Year is probably the biggest holiday in Chinese culture,\u201d Gu added. \u201cI remember growing up making dumplings with my mom and grandma in San Francisco and learning how to roll the dough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More:\u00a0Jutta Leerdam owned the podium but her sisters found their moment, too<\/a><\/p>\n

Gu also shared a New Year\u2019s message for those celebrating the holiday. \u201cI wish everybody a magical, wonderful and prosperous Year of the Horse\u2026a lot of health to everybody and their families and just joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eileen has won multiple Olympic medals across the 2022 and 2026 Winter Games and remains one of the most recognizable athletes in freestyle skiing.<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eileen Gu laughs off \u2018gold lost\u2019 question and reminds the world who she is<\/a><\/p>\n

Debates about her Olympic allegiance continue online. In San Francisco, the critics were hard to hear over the cheers.<\/p>\n

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More lifestyle news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eileen Gu gets hero\u2019s welcome in hometown of San Francisco originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[76139,96631,68625,96970,101,103,102,104,106,105,42022],"class_list":{"0":"post-210769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-chinese-new-year-parade","9":"tag-eileen-gu","10":"tag-grand-marshal","11":"tag-katherine-delmar-burke-school","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news","18":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}