Follow the Olympic Games on RDS and Sportish
At 18, she has already won two Olympic medals, collects exploits and China has fallen under her spell: Eileen Gu is a phenomenon of freestyle skiing and sport-business who can play on two tables and two markets, Chinese and American. .
After gold in big air, Gu offered silver in slopestyle on Tuesday, before the last part of his Olympic triptych on Thursday and Friday with the half-pipe event in Zhangjiakou.
Whatever her record at the end of this Beijing fortnight, Gu Ailing, as she is known in China, is already guaranteed to be one of the stars, if not “THE” star, of the 2022 Olympics.
There was already little doubt that it was otherwise even before the start of the Beijing Games: the teenager, born in California to an American father and a Chinese mother, was already ubiquitous in China, in fashion magazines and as an ambassador for several brands such as a chain of cafes, a mobile phone operator or a milk producer.
In the United States, it is luxury brands, such as the jeweler Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Gucci, which have been seduced by the teenager from San Francisco who, in her spare time, participates in fashion shows.
“Princess Frog”
She does not yet appear in Forbes’ annual ranking of the wealthiest athletes, but the American business magazine is following the Gu phenomenon closely.
According to Cheyenne Cantor, director of marketing firm MediaLink, interviewed recently by Forbes, “Gu is in an interesting position where she can represent Chinese and American brands. It can draw attention to brands in China that do not yet have the reputation of other American brands, and vice versa”.
Gu, who chose to represent China in 2019, understands this well and insists as soon as she is questioned, as is often the case, on the subject of her dual nationality, that she feels both Chinese and American.
“I am indebted to both the United States and China, these two countries have supported me, what I have experienced in these two countries has made the person that I am. I am American when I am in the United States and Chinese when I am in China”, she repeated after her Olympic title in big air skiing.
Sinophone — she has spent several months in China each year since childhood — Gu, affectionately nicknamed “the frog princess” in reference to the green helmet she wore during a competition, quickly understood how to become a darling in China. .
Chinese dumplings
On the social network Weibo, she regularly publishes photos showing her putting a greedy eye on Chinese dumplings, her cute sin, to the delight of her 4.6 million subscribers.
After her two victories last year at the X-Games, a major extreme sports event, the New China press agency immediately presented her as a “new icon of Chinese sport”.
The one who obtained a place at Stanford University certainly shows incredible maturity, but is also very well surrounded, with in particular her mother, very present, who oversees the smooth running of the multinational Gu, on the snowparks and outside.
The message is well established.
“I want to use sport as a force to connect people in these two countries, instead of dividing them. My ultimate goal is to make my sport known throughout the world, if there is even only one little girl who discovers freestyle skiing by watching my events on TV, I will have achieved my goal”, unfolds the 2021 double world champion (halfpipe and slopestyle).
Before rebelling, a little, against those who criticize her on social networks: “I’m not trying to make everyone happy, I’m just an 18-year-old teenager who is living the best moments of her life”.
