‘I Don’t Believe in Limits.’ How Eileen Gu Became Freestyle Skiing’s Biggest Star

Gu started skiing when she was 3, picked up freestyle at 8, and by the time she was 9 won a national junior title. Yan, who raised Gu as a single parent, would drive her daughter from their San Francisco home to train in the Lake Tahoe area on the weekends, a four-hour trip each way. Gu spent that time sleeping, eating, doing homework, and bonding with her mother. “It was integral to our relationship,” she says. 

During the summers, Gu studied in Beijing, where Yan had graduated from Peking University. As a biracial young woman, she stood out. She’d call a taxi driver for a ride to school and speak perfect Mandarin, but the driver would often pass right by her at the intersection. “They would see me visually and be like, that can’t be the person I just talked to on the phone,” says Gu. “I’d be late to class every morning.” Still, she grew to love Chinese culture. In the summer of 2015, at age 11, Gu was teaching other young girls how to flip on a trampoline when she heard that Beijing would host the 2022 Olympics. She told Yan she’d be at those Games, thanking people in Chinese.