Olympics
Eileen Gu has officially etched her name into Olympic history. With her latest podium performance at the Winter Olympics, Gu now owns five Olympic medals—more than any other Freestyle Park & Pipe skier in history. And remarkably, she still has one event left to compete: halfpipe.
At just 22 years old, Gu has redefined what’s possible in Olympic freeskiing. Across two Games, she has demonstrated rare versatility, competing—and medaling—across multiple disciplines including big air, slopestyle, and halfpipe. In a sport where most athletes specialize in one event, Gu has consistently contended and medaled in three. In 2022 at the Beijing Olympics, Gu won gold in the halfpipe and big air event, as well as a silver in slopestyle. Now during the current 2026 Olympics in Milan-Cortina, she has picked up another two silver medals in slopestyle and big air.
Her five-medal tally sets a new benchmark for Olympic freeskiing, surpassing every man and woman who has competed in the discipline since it became a full Olympic sport. The achievement underscores not just longevity, but range—big air amplitude, slopestyle technicality, and halfpipe precision all demand different skill sets, training approaches, and mental preparation. Behind her, Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud holds four Olympic medals from her campaigns from 2018-2026. Unfortunately, Gremaud had crashed hard in big air training in Livigno, ending her bid for a fifth medal in the discipline.
Among Americans, Gu earned a lot of criticism for swapping from competing for the U.S. to competing for China ahead of the 2022 Olympics. Eileen Gu is the daughter of a Chinese mother and an American father born in California. Among Chinese, she draws criticism for holding two passports—a privilege denied to other Chinese citizens. However, when talking to Gu, she is just in it for the love of the sport and in the hope of inspiring others. “The reason I love skiing is that it’s an embodiment of all the values that I judge myself by: resilience, breaking boundaries, doing things that nobody thought were possible,” she said in an interview with Reuters.
Halfpipe still remains on the schedule, giving Gu the opportunity to extend her record even further. Already the most decorated Olympic freestyle skier of all time, she now has the chance to create even more separation in the history books.
Beyond the numbers, her impact has been cultural as much as competitive. Gu’s ability to straddle two cultures—to study at Stanford while competing for China—while performing under Olympic pressure makes her an even more impressive athlete. You can make what you want of her decision to compete for China, it does not take away that she is the most defining Freeski Park & Pipe athlete of this generation of Winter Games.
History has already been made—but Gu may not be finished writing it.
it is her right to decide which nation to represent. Talking about money, why not mention how much she paid tax in US from the money she made from China!
“she is just in it for the love of the sport and in the hope of inspiring others.”
Really? How about the millions of dollars she’s being paid to represent China and the Communist Party? There’s a name for people that sell themselves and it rhymes with bore.
Eileen Gu, is a student at Stanford, not Harvard as the article stated.
Sorry, yes thanks for the correction