Eileen Gu, US-born Chinese Olympian, slams organizers for not rearranging events around her schedule
Eileen Gu, the American-born Olympic skier who competes for China, has slammed the organizers at the 2026 Games for not rearranging events to work around her schedule after she fell during one of her jumps Saturday, jeopardizing her gold medal ambitions.
Gu, 22, said she was “disappointed” with what she called insufficient training opportunities ahead of her final event, the halfpipe.
The freestyle skier, who was born and raised in San Francisco, claimed she hadn’t been given the same amount of practice as her competitors after she fell during the second of three jumps on Saturday, skidding sideways on impact and breaking a ski.
Defending champion Gu dropped to 17th place in the table before recovering in her third jump and climbing back into medal contention.
But after the event, she complained that Olympic organizers hadn’t let her rearrange the events so she could have more practice time.
“I’m disappointed in FIS [the International Ski and Snowboard Federation],” Gu told reporters following Saturday’s mishap.
“I think the Olympics should epitomize aspiration, and I think being able to do something that’s beyond the ordinary should be celebrated instead of punished,” she added.
Gu, who has competed for her mother’s homeland China since 2019, is the only female athlete at the 2026 games in Italy to compete in all three freestyle disciplines: big air, halfpipe and slopestyle.
“I’m proud to be the only freestyle skier competing in three events,” she said. “I’m here to give my best. We’ll see what happens.”
Earlier this week, Gu claimed silver in the women’s slopestyle.
The FIS scheduled three training sessions before qualifying, compared to two for a typical World Cup event.
“Every effort has been made to facilitate the best possible training,” spokesman Bruno Sassi said in a statement on Saturday.
“But as we have already seen at these Games, for athletes who choose to compete in multiple disciplines and/or multiple events, conflicts can sometimes be inevitable,” he added.
Gu has come under criticism in both the US and China, after it was revealed that she reportedly earned $23 million in 2025, making her one of the world’s highest-paid female athletes,.
The Chinese Communist Party-controlled Beijing sports bureau was set to pay Gu and Beverly Zhu, another US-born Olympic athlete who competes for China, a combined $6.6 million, according to a leaked budget report.
Gu and Zhu were set to receive nearly $14 million over three years from the Chinese government, with the most recent allocation a payment for “striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics,” the budget stated.
“Alysa Liu’s father fled China after Tiananmen in search of freedom in the United States. She chose to represent America. American-born Eileen Gu chose to represent the CCP for money. These two are not the same,” one X user wrote.
