Eileen Gu Net Worth

What is Eileen Gu's net worth?

Eileen Gu is an American-born Olympic skier who has a net worth of $50 million.

Eileen Gu is one of the rare Olympic athletes whose financial success has far outpaced the economics of her sport. Though freestyle skiing offers limited prize money, she has built a business empire driven almost entirely by endorsements, modeling contracts, and long-term brand partnerships. Raised and educated in the United States, Gu made international headlines as a teenager when she chose to compete for China rather than Team USA, a decision that dramatically expanded her global profile ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

On the competitive side, Gu quickly proved she was more than a marketing phenomenon. She emerged as a generational talent capable of winning across multiple disciplines, capturing World Cup victories, X Games medals, and world championship titles. Her breakout came in 2021, when she won three medals at the World Championships, including two golds, cementing her status as one of the most versatile skiers in the sport.

At the 2022 Olympics, Gu delivered one of the most celebrated performances of the Games, winning gold in big air and halfpipe and silver in slopestyle. She became the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Olympics and instantly transformed into a cultural and commercial force. In recent years, Gu has earned more than $20 million annually from endorsements alone, while her direct competition earnings typically amount to well under $200,000 per year, underscoring how dramatically her commercial value exceeds the financial rewards of elite skiing.

Early Life and Education

Eileen Gu was born on September 2, 2003, in San Francisco, California. She was raised primarily by her mother, Yan Gu, a Chinese-born engineer who earned undergraduate and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Peking University before moving to the United States for further education. Yan initially enrolled at Auburn University, later transferred to Rockefeller University, and eventually relocated to the Bay Area, where she earned an MBA from Stanford University.

During this period, Yan Gu became an avid skier in Lake Tahoe. When Eileen was still a toddler, her mother began bringing her onto the slopes, in part so she would have a skiing companion. Eileen's father did not remain involved in her upbringing, and she was raised by her mother and grandmother in a bilingual household, speaking both English and Mandarin at home.

Gu grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended University High School in San Francisco. She graduated in 2022 after completing the program in just three years. That same year, she enrolled at Stanford University, where she has continued to balance undergraduate studies with elite international competition.

Skiing Career

Gu has competed internationally for China since 2019, a decision that immediately set her apart within the world of freestyle skiing. She has consistently declined to clarify her citizenship status, a subject she has described as intrusive in past interviews. The most she has publicly stated is a variation of the same line she has repeated for years: "When I'm in the U.S., I'm American, but when I'm in China, I'm Chinese."

On the competitive side, Gu quickly established herself as one of the most versatile freestyle skiers in the world. At the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, she won gold medals in halfpipe and big air, along with a silver in slopestyle. The following year, she dominated multiple major events, earning two gold medals and a bronze at the 2021 Winter X Games in Aspen, followed by two golds and a bronze at the 2021 World Championships.

After dealing with injuries that forced her to miss portions of the 2024 season and early 2025 calendar, Gu returned to top form late in 2025. In December, she won a World Cup halfpipe event in China, marking her 19th career World Cup victory and reinforcing her status as one of the most dominant athletes of her generation.

Despite her popularity, Gu's story has occasionally drawn criticism within China, where some observers have argued that her success reflects an American upbringing and access to Western training infrastructure more than the traditional Chinese sports development system. That tension has followed her throughout her career.

Olympic Career

Heading into the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Gu was one of the most heavily marketed and closely scrutinized athletes in the field. Her decision to compete for China, combined with her refusal to publicly clarify her citizenship status, made her a focal point of controversy in both the United States and China.

Once competition began, however, Gu delivered one of the standout performances of the Games. She won gold medals in big air and halfpipe, along with a silver in slopestyle, becoming the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Olympic Games. Her results made her a national hero in China and cemented her status as one of the defining athletes of the Beijing Olympics.

(Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Endorsements

Thanks to her success and beauty, it's not surprising that Eileen Gu would be highly in demand as a model and product endorser. She has endorsement contracts with at least 30 international and Chinese brands. These deals generate around $20 million per year.

Heading into the 2022 games, she signed $30 million worth of endorsement deals with more than a dozen brands. Her face was plastered around China, adorning the walls of subways, airports, and bus stops.

As of this writing, some of Eileen's most important endorsement deals include:

• Victoria's Secret
• Fendi
• Gucci
• Tiffany & Co
• Louis Vuitton

The categories of her endorsement deals include:

• Clothing
• Cars
• Luxury watches
• Cosmetics
• Banking
• Insurance
• Milk
• House paint

Chinese Government Revenue Split/Citizenship

Eileen's timing is lucky. Previous Chinese Olympic athletes were shunned from having endorsement deals at all. If they did have deals, they had to be approved, AND the athletes had to split their income with the government. It's unclear if Eileen is splitting her income.

Gu has consistently declined to clarify her citizenship status. While China does not allow dual citizenship, there is no public record showing that she has formally renounced her American citizenship. Her representatives have declined to comment when asked, and Gu has reiterated variations of the same statement over the years: that she considers herself American in the United States and Chinese in China.

This ambiguity has fueled criticism from audiences in both countries, with some American commentators accusing her of disloyalty and some Chinese internet users questioning her patriotism. Gu has publicly pushed back on both narratives, emphasizing her competitive results for China and her contributions to the country's freestyle skiing program.

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