China confirmed in January it had reached the milestone ahead of its home Beijing 2022 Winter Games (February 4 to 20), while “snow princess” Gu is fast becoming a household name and has graced the covers of several fashion magazines – but the world champion teen is just getting started.
US-born Gu, 18, speaks fluent English and Mandarin. Beijing-native mother Yan was always keen to imprint Chinese culture and values on her daughter having emigrated to the States and raising her in San Francisco.
Aside from the past two pandemic-ridden years, they have been returning to China every summer since Gu was a child. Her mixed-race appearance would gain attention from the locals – which upset her at first – but she has since embraced both cultures under the mantra “I feel Chinese in China, and American in America”.Gu is also proudly bearing the flag for Chinese females in a sport that is heavily dominated by men. Though she still sees herself as a minority in the sport, she hopes to use it as a force to unite different cultures.
On a trip to Switzerland, Gu taught her skiing teammates how to prepare traditional dumplings. Since the group hailed from different continents, she suggested they prepared different cuisines each night.“Leading up to Beijing 2022, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring up more energy around the sports culture in China, especially around younger girls,” Gu told Radii China.
Gu previously recalled to the Post that she would convince her Chinese summer school friends, who were preparing for the stressful National College Entrance Examinations, to let off some steam in a local basketball team despite being the only girls.
Amid the rise of anti-Asian sentiments in the US last year, Gu actively spoke out on her social media platforms to raise awareness of an issue close to her heart.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt fear like that in my entire life,” she told the Post. “I grabbed my grandma and we ran out. That was the moment I realised how close to home it hit -that anybody can be affected just because of the way they look.”
Gu has also been a strong advocate for gender equality and representation of women in sports. She intends to study relevant courses at her deferred Stanford University programme, and hopes to use her voice to introduce snow sports to more girls in China.
She cites her mum and grandmother as “by far the biggest influences in my life” for instilling a “strong, fierce, competitive” nature from youth.
Her mother is also an avid skier and took Gu on her first ski adventure when she was just three months old, enrolling her daughter in ski school at the age of three. Gu is often seen video-calling her mother and grandmother between competition events.
Gu, a two-time Youth Olympic champion, is considered to be a triple Beijing Olympic threat in the half-pipe, slopestyle and big air events.
Slope domination aside, Gu’s long-term goal is to inspire and empower a new generation of Chinese women’s skiers, maintain her already thriving modelling career, and act as a cultural bridge between China and the US. Her first act of diplomacy may well be as Team China’s Olympic flag-bearer.
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