Eileen Gu Is Trying to Soar Over the Geopolitical Divide

Born in San Francisco, she’ll compete in the Olympics for China, her mother’s native country. Can an 18-year-old freeskier be all things to all people in a fractured world?

SAAS-FEE, Switzerland — Day after October day, run after run, on a glacier high above town, the freestyle skier Eileen Gu spent hours perfecting her tricks in the halfpipe, then on the giant ramps of the slopestyle course next to it. The Winter Olympics in Beijing, where Gu will be one of the biggest stars, win or lose, were still a few months away.

Fly, flip, twist, land; fly, flip, twist, land. Again and again, forging confidence and burning the corkscrewed aerial movements into muscle memory. Then it was straight to the T-bar that dragged her back to the top. The quiet monotony repeated, for weeks through the fall.

Gu, an 18-year-old born and raised in San Francisco, decided in 2019 to compete for China, her mother’s home country. She is well known there, as Gu Ailing, a dominant skier and a budding supermodel.