Eileen Gu

Eileen Feng Gu (born September 3, 2003), also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing (Chinese: 谷爱凌), is a freestyle skier. Born in the United States, she has competed for China in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events since 2019.

At age 18, Gu became the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing after winning gold medals in big air and halfpipe and a silver medal in slopestyle at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She is the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Winter Olympics. Owing to geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China and questions around nationality, her switch from Team USA to China drew international attention and controversy at the beginning of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

She is the first naturalized Chinese free-skier, the first American with Chinese ancestry to win a gold medal in any Winter Olympic event (accomplishing this feat on 7 February 2022), and the second Chinese free-ski Olympic gold medalist after Han Xiaopeng. She is the first female Chinese free-ski Olympic gold medalist and joins the list of previous Olympic Chinese female free-ski medalists that include Xu Mengtao, Li Nina, and Xu Nannan.

Time named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world under the 'Pioneers' category on its annual list in 2022. Forbes listed her as the third-highest paid female athlete in the world in 2022.

In May 2023, Gu was awarded the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award.