BEIJING — Eileen Gu amassed an army of cynics when she spurned Team USA to represent China at the Beijing Games.
Moments after the biggest run of her life, the 18-year-old freestyle skiing prodigy was asked about her status as a U.S. citizen, her feelings on Peng Shuai and the incessant hate she’s received on social media.
“If people don’t believe me, if people don’t like me, then that’s their loss,” Gu said. “They’re never going to win the Olympics.”
Gu did just that, earning the first of what she and her many fans in Beijing hope could be three gold medals by cranking out the first 1620 of her career in her final turn, stunning Tess Ledeux of France to win the Olympic debut of women’s freeski big air.
The American-born Gu had never landed the double cork 1620 — a move in which skiers spin 4 1/2 times while rotating twice off-axis while 20-some feet in the air. Not in practice. Not in competition.
Only with the weight of her adopted homeland right there on her shoulders.
“I want all the girls to break their boundaries,” she said in Chinese, via interpreter. “I want them to think if Eileen can do it, I can do it.”
A crowd of spectators gathered spontaneously in front of a big TV screen in Wangfujing, a famed shopping district in central Beijing, on Tuesday morning.
“It’s very cheering. She’s of Chinese origin and has returned to China. I feel proud of her,” said Beijing resident Jiang Yu, 36.
Capacity was limited at 5,000-seat Big Air Shougang — a shuttered steel mill that Beijing has converted into an eerie-yet-serene park, culture hub and sports center. The reaction still told the story.
The “Snow Princess” was ready for her crown.
Gu, whose mother is Chinese, estimates she’s spent at least a quarter of her life in China. Her origin story, as she tells it, begins with the time she pitched the idea for China’s first slopestyle ski event at age 9 — and won.
Since choosing to side with China in 2019, she has said repeatedly that her goal is to encourage girls and women to take up winter sports — aligning with China’s pledge to inspire 300 million to hit the ice or snow.
