NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage will lean heavily on athletes competing for the U.S., as the broadcaster seeks to tap American patriotism and capture eyeballs during the games. One exception: a 22-year-old freestyle skier competing for China who will get the full star treatment.
Eileen Gu is not your typical winter sports athlete who pops up on your radar every four years. She is a multi-hyphenate global megastar with a resume that includes Olympic champion, IMG Models client, brand ambassador and Stanford junior, majoring in international relations. And while Gu competes for China, she grew up in San Francisco.
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Her unique profile helped her earn an estimated $23 million in 2025, fourth among female athletes and tops outside of tennis players. It is more than any other athlete competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics, with U.S. hockey player Auston Matthews second at $21 million.
In 2019, Gu started competing for China, where her mother was born; Gu spent her childhood summers studying in Beijing. The controversial decision supercharged her endorsement portfolio ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. She partnered with more than 20 brands leading up to the 2022 Games and appeared on covers of the Chinese editions of InStyle, Marie Claire and Vogue. Sponsors included luxury brands, such as Tiffany and Louis Vuitton, as well as Chinese-based firms Bank of China, China Mobile and Luckin Coffee.
Gu delivered on the hype leading up to Beijing, as she became the first freestyle skier to win three medals in a single Olympics and the youngest Olympic champion in freestyle skiing.
“There is a massive audience out there for a Chinese athlete with global appeal,” Rick Burton, Syracuse University sports management professor and former chief marketing officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said in a phone interview. “Gu checks all the marketability boxes and has so much going for her. Cross-cultural appeal, Olympic champion, young and dynamic.”
In tennis, Li Na’s endorsement earnings approached $20 million a year after she won the French Open (2011) and Wimbledon (2014), while Zheng Qinwen’s off-court game jumped after her breakout 2024, in which she won an Olympic gold medal, the first ever by an Asian tennis player, male or female. Emma Raducanu—who competes under the British flag but whose mother was born in China—won the 2021 U.S. Open as a qualifier; she delivered a message in Mandarin to her fans after winning the title, which triggered more than a half-dozen multi-million endorsement deals.
Gu has cut back on the number of sponsorship deals since Beijing but is earning more than ever off the snow, roughly three times as much as American skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn. Gu has global deals with Porsche, Red Bull and IWC, along with a handful of Chinese-based companies, including Anta Sports, Bosideng, Mengniu Dairy and Luckin.
Last year, she added Chinese electronics firm TCL to her portfolio, months after the brand joined The Olympic Partner (TOP) program, taking over for Panasonic. TCL’s Olympic rights mean the firm can utilize Gu in its marketing during the 2026 Winter Games.
Freestyle skiing joined the Olympic program at the 1992 Albertville Games after it appeared as a demonstration sport at Calgary four years earlier. Gu is one of three athletes to win two freestyle gold medals and can break the tie this month; her three total medals are also tied for best.
There is not much prize money in the sport. Gu won her first two events of the 2025-26 FIS season and earned $44,000 combined. She also won December’s Snow League event in China, worth $50,000, on top of taking home a $5,000 appearance fee. Last year, she became a global ambassador for The Snow League, the recently launched professional league for snowboarding and freeskiing, founded by Olympic gold medalist Shaun White.
The prize money is limited, but the events provide Gu and her sponsors with exposure beyond the marketing campaigns and magazine profiles. Her estimated endorsement income of $23 million in 2025 is tied with tennis’ Coco Gauff for tops among female athletes.
Gu paused her studies at Stanford this school year but will be back on campus in March for the spring quarter. Right now, she is focused on adding more gold medals to her collection.