The Making of Teenage Olympic Gold Medalist and Commercial Star Eileen Gu

Image Source: Visual China

Teenage freeski athlete Eileen Gu won a gold medal in the women’s big air event on February 8, 2022, which was China’s third gold and her first medal in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. She bagged the gold with a 1620 and a perfect landing, accumulating a total score of 188.25, narrowly beating fierce competitor France"s Tess Ledeux, who took silver with a score of 187.50.

As Gu teared up at the spot for completing a move she had never done before, Chinese fans crashed the Internet when they celebrated Gu’s victory on social media with pride.

Later, Gu was bombarded by loads of questions from reporters around the world during a press conference after the competition, gaining massive exposure.

“She’s just so popular. It seems everyone loves Eileen Gu,” a reporter said.

When asked about the pressure to compete in three categories in the Winter Olympic Games, Gu simply smiled and said the three categories actually reduce the pressure on her because they give her three attempts to realize her goal.

Gu’s victory at women’s big air came as a surprise because the category is not her biggest strength. Women’s Slopestyle and Women’s Halfpipe that were originally scheduled for February 14 and 18 are actually her strongest categories.

The qualifying round in the women"s freeski slopestyle was postponed due to heavy snowfall.

Gu still has the opportunity to break records at the Beijing Winter Olympics as there are two gold medals that might fall into her pocket. Along with her success on the winter sports field, Gu is also gaining massive commercial value as a rising star in the sports industry, especially in China.

Eileen Gu was born to an American father and a Chinese mother in San Francisco in September Eillen’s mother Gu Yan graduated from China’s top academic institution Peking University, where she was a ski coach. Gu Yan later studied at Stanford University and graduated with a master’s in business administration.

When Gu was three years old, she got the opportunity to try out skiing for the first time at the Northstar California Resort in California, where her mother worked as a part-time ski coach. She quickly fell in love with skiing. “The coach was teaching a bunch of kids,” Gu recalled trying to ski for the first time. “I quickly learned the basics and how to make turns. I was able to ski across forests the next winter.”

Gu’s grandmother taught her piano, which also helped her master the arts of skiing even better. Gu would imagine every skiing move as a piece of music as she moves with rhythm. “Cork 900 has a move that goes like ‘da-dada’, while Cork 1260 as a move that sounds like ‘dadada-dada’,” Gu explained.

It is apparent that Gu inherited a knack for sports from her mother. At the age of eight, Gu joined a professional ski team. When she was nine, she won the champion of a national skiing competition for the youth. Gu had already won 50 gold medals at the age of 14, including nine gold medals from national competitions in the United States. At 15, Gu got her first world champion title in the women’s category in Italy.

Gu is also talented in school. She completed American high school courses one year earlier in 2020 as the Winter Olympics neared. Gu scored 1580 out of 1600 in SAT and was admitted to Stanford University.

Gu’s mother would take her daughter to study International Mathematical Olympiad in Beijing every summer. “Studying in China for ten days pretty much equals studying in the United States for a year,” Gu Yan said. Her daughter’s incredible success in school proved her point.

Gu’s bond with China started to grow as she tried out Chinese food and learned about Chinese culture when she was in Beijing.

In June 2019, Gu, who was just 15 years old at that time, made a life-changing announcement for herself on social media – she has acquired Chinese citizenship. Before the announcement, the United States national team tried to recruit her to represent the United States.

Gu’s citizenship status on the website of the International Ski Federation is now Chinese.

“I speak fluent mandarin and I have a strong connection with Beijing. I am a Haidian kid who grew up watching Ne Zha,” Gu said, explaining her decision.

Image: Gu and her mother

After her decision to compete for China, Gu soon reaped great achievements for China in winter sports.

Gu won gold in the halfpie category and slopestyle category in Canada in 2020. She later won first place in both Big Air and Halfpie in the United States in December 2021.

In 2021, Gu won six top-notch competitions in only 26 days, becoming a rising star in the sports industry. Gu has secured 12 gold medals for China in the past two years.

Gu’s success is a combination of talent and hard work.

In 2016, she broke her clavicle during training. It took her seven weeks to recover from the injury and resume training.

At the year-end of 2018, she suffered from a concussion and experienced memory loss when she was training during the World Cup China competition. The serious injury did not stop the superstar from winning the championship at the World Cup Italy two weeks later.

In March 2021 right before the World Ski, Gu was hit by avulsion fracture and ligament tear. She put off the surgery for her injuries for the competition and won two golds and one bronze in Halfpie, Slopestyle and Big Air respectively.

At the 2022 Winter Olympics Big Air, Gu made the decision to perform a difficult 1620 that she had never done before. She completed it with a perfect landing and brought home a gold medal.

Gu manages her time extremely well as she faces pressure from both training and schoolwork. She would always utilize the precious time to study and complete her school assignments when commuting to ski fields.

Gu has also set the task to sleep for ten hours for herself to reach a balance in life. She believes that talent only plays a small part in her success while hard work and discipline are what made a difference.

Apart from her incredible achievements in snow sports and academic work, Gu also has a variety of interests and hobbies, including piano, horse-riding, basketball, painting, swimming, singing and even ballet.

It is simply incredible for Gu to excel in so many fields.

But at the end of the day, the superstar is still an 18-year-old teenager who also has some childlike sides. In the documentary titled Everyday Eileen, Gu’s fans got to see her ski helmet with a cat drawing on it. During the Winter Youth Olympic Games, Gu would draw up a kitten on the back of her hand because she believed the kitten would bring her luck.

Gu’s lucky charm did not bring her luck at a competition one time. “I think the cat was hungry, or just feeling pissed,” Gu said, trying to think of reasons why the lucky charm did not work.

There is no doubt that there lie ahead many possibilities for Gu.

She loves fashion and would attend fashion events. Many of the clothes she wore for competitions were designed by herself. It is fair to say that Gu might also have a knack for fashion design.

As for her academic path, Gu revealed that she might major in International Relations, Public Policy or Molecular Genetics in college during an interview with the Associated Press in February 2022.

It might not even surprise anyone if one day Gu becomes a chef. There are just simply so many possibilities for Gu in the future.

Gu had less than ten big-name sponsors before 2021. Her sponsors included Mengniu, Anta, Red Bull and Faction Skis, most of which are inherently associated with the sports industry.

In 2021, however, Gu gained brand ambassadorships from more than 20 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Estée Lauder, Cadillac, China Mobile, Luckin Coffee, Genki Forest and JD.com, covering a wide range of sectors such as sports, cosmetics, home appliances, banking and even telecommunication.

Image: Gu"s brand deals

Gu’s success in snow sports plays an important role in her commercial value. As the only athlete that competes in three categories in skiing, every medal that Gu claims shapes China’s record in freestyle skiing.

Gu is also the only athlete that has acquired the champion title in World Cup Copper Hill, Calgary (twice) and Mammoth Mountain. At X Games, Gu took home two golds and one bronze, becoming the first Chinese athlete to win gold at X Games.

Besides her brand as a skiing genius, Gu is also backed by top-notch modeling agency IMG. Gu has already been featured in major fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper"s Bazaar and Elle.

Gu’s increasing popularity in the fashion industry has also brought her many commercial opportunities.

In addition, the entertainment industry in China is suffering from a moral hazard as celebrities’ unethical and even illegal behavior was exposed, which has caused major losses to brands that the entertainment stars were working with. From the perspective of brands, Gu has a positive image that seems to be more stable, which qualifies her as an ideal brand ambassador.

Gu had been appearing in the commercials that were displayed in elevators, subway, shopping malls and on social media before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

But how much commercial value does Eileen Gu have?

Gu’s pricing for being a brand ambassador is two million dollars for a year, financial news media Global Netrepreneur reported, quoting an unnamed agent who claimed to have worked with Gu before. The final price can vary depending on the brand and the contract details, the source said.

In 2021, Gu’s signing fee was around 20 million yuan, Caijing reported. The pricing is much higher than that of badminton player Lin Dan and swimmer Sun Yang at their peak. Gu’s current commercial value might be only second to legendary basketball player Yao Ming in China’s sports industry.

If Gu takes 10 million yuan from every brand endorsement or sponsorship deal she has signed, she would have made over 200 million yuan from working with around 20 brands in the past year. Such commercial value is unseen in any other ski athlete.

Gu’s commercial value might climb even higher if she is able to collect more medals from her other two categories at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

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