If Eileen Gu’s account of remaining Saturday’s Freestyle Ski Global Cup match in Calgary is anything else to head via, an afternoon within the Olympian’s existence is as numerous as it’s busy: She took first position in morning qualifiers, wrote two essays, learn some René Descartes and George Berkeley for a philosophy elegance after which “did some physics” earlier than returning to the slopes for the general.
This time remaining yr, American-born Gu was once lower than two weeks clear of making her Olympic debut in Beijing, representing China, her mom’s nation of start. As one of the vital Video games’ maximum closely subsidized athletes, she was once already a recognizable face. However few out of doors the snowboarding international had observed her in motion. Any recommendation that her skills were overstated quickly dissolved as she took house 3 medals, together with golds within the halfpipe and large air competitions.
Gu makes her runway debut at Louis Vuitton’s 2023 Cruise display in San Diego, California in Would possibly 2022. Credit score: Jerod Harris/Getty Pictures
“Other folks all the time suppose that model and snowboarding are those two utterly disparate entities … when in truth, the core facets are in fact very identical,” she stated, chatting with CNN sports activities anchor and correspondent Coy Cord forward of this weekend’s Wintry weather X Video games in Aspen, Colorado.
“Each are rooted in a way of self-expression and creativity. Each require a large number of self belief, with the ability to carry out beneath drive, and with the ability to be your self unapologetically. And I feel that the ones qualities in point of fact do elevate over.”
Now not best do recreation, college and model overlap, they give a contribution to each other, stated Gu, depicting the juggling act as a question of symbiosis, now not compromise. What she learns in psychology applies to snowboarding, which in flip sparks creativity that she carries into model; modeling in the meantime provides courses in resilience and self belief which can be then implemented to her school paintings — “so all of it is going in a circle,” she stated.
Watch: Coy Cord interviews Eileen Gu forward of the Wintry weather X Video games
(Picture via Patrick Smith/Getty Pictures of Gu competing on the Beijing 2022 Wintry weather Olympics.)
Hurtling down a halfpipe can have little in not unusual with strolling a runway however “it all is attached,” the 19-year-old stated. Attracted to motion sports activities for the sense that she is “repeatedly pushing” her personal obstacles, Gu stated snowboarding leaves her feeling “like I am in a position to anything else.”
“As a result of if I will be able to push my frame to do a double cork, who says I will be able to’t upload any other 180 (levels rotation)? Or if you wish to turn it into any other space of my existence, who says I will be able to’t get a greater rating at the subsequent check, or shoot my dream mag?”
“Attractiveness is energy,” she later added. “And good looks is with the ability to be sturdy, now not simply in what your frame seems like, but additionally what your frame can do.”
Taste ‘characterised via stability’
“Simply seeing the way in which artwork can in reality be put at the frame, and the way expressive it may be in a display. (It is) now not on the subject of the folk dressed in the garments and the way they give the impression of being … but additionally in regards to the environment, the song, the set — there is such a lot that is going into it.”
She describes her private taste, like a lot else in her existence, as “characterised via stability” — “between masculine and female, between chic and sporty, between playful and mature.
“All of the ones in point of fact are other aspects of my existence, and relying at the day, I in finding model is a good way for me to specific how I believe … I glance other on a daily basis, even inside a couple of hours. However that is what’s a laugh about it.”
Gu is signed with IMG Fashions, the company at the back of Kate Moss, Bella Hadid and extra of favor’s greatest names. She has labored with Victoria’s Secret, Tiffany & Co., Swiss watchmaker IWC and cosmetics massive Estée Lauder (in addition to various manufacturers in China, together with café chain Luckin Espresso, telecoms company China Cellular and Inside Mongolia’s Mengniu Dairy).
Gu attends the 2022 Met Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York Town. Credit score: Theo Wargo/WireImage/Getty Pictures
“For me, rising up, there were not that many women within the ski business,” she stated, including: “I am younger and I am seeking to do my best possible, and I simply need to be the individual that a woman at house can see on TV or on their telephone and say, ‘Whats up, you recognize, if she will do this, then I would like to check out it, too. She seems like she’s having a laugh. When can I check out?'”