Born in the USA but representing China, teenage freeski prodigy Eileen Gu made history in 2021 by winning three medals on her debut at the X Games.
Eileen Gu – also known by her Chinese name, Gu Ailing – was born in 2003 in San Francisco. Her father is American and her mother is Chinese.
Eileen started skiing when she was only three years old and she became champion of the junior group of the USA Snowboard and Freeski Association at the age of nine, before entering the senior ranks when she was just 13.
Eileen earned her first World Cup victory at the FIS Freeski World Cup Slopestyle in Seiser Alm, Italy, when she was 15 in January 2019. Then, on June 7 of the same year, she announced her naturalisation as a Chinese citizen on her Instagram account. (Eileen had been competing for the US in international events since the 2017–18 season.)
To prepare for competitions, Eileen set herself a goal to graduate after completing two years of high school in just one year. "The nearest ski resort is four hours drive from where I live now. If I can graduate from high school next year, I will spend more time on my training to better prepare," she says.
With that in mind, she put down a real statement of intent at the 2020 Youth Games in Lausanne, Switzerland, taking Halfpipe gold and Slopestyle silver.
Eileen further cemented her wunderkind credentials in her first X Games appearance at the 2021 event in Aspen, where she made history as the first-ever female rookie to win three medals after taking gold in both Ski Slopestyle and Superpipe and a bronze in Ski Big Air.
Two months later Eileen once again demonstrated her huge potential, securing bronze in Big Air and claiming gold in both the Halfpipe and Slopestyle competition at the FIS Freestyle Skiing World Championship in Aspen.