Rarely has a teenage athlete aroused such great interest and goodwill in China. At 17, Gu Ailing has graced the cover of numerous Chinese magazines and grabbed the headlines in almost all major sports newspapers throughout the country. 

Born to a Chinese mother and an American father, the glamorous wunderkind, who also goes by the name of Eileen Gu, announced her arrival as a freestyle skier sensation at 9 with a breathtaking performance at the USASA National Championships.  

Gu maintained an upward trend and won several trophies thereafter, but what drove her to worldwide recognition is an Instagram post she posted in June 2019, when the skiing prodigy announced that she would represent China in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics after switching her citizenship from the U.S. to China.

She explained that competing in the Chinese uniform will offer "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love." Cheers, bravos and applause subsequently rang out across China and Gu's high-profile declaration has duly become a trending topic in Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.  

Gu, who speaks fluent Mandarin, exudes a maturity that belies her age. She declared on various occasions that she hopes to "enhance interaction, understanding, and friendship" between China and the U.S. "If I can help to inspire one young girl to break a boundary, my wishes will have come true," she said on Instagram. 

She then embarked on a thrilling winning run.

Just two months after becoming China's first naturalized skier, Gu won her first gold medal for China in the women's slopestyle event at the Australian New Zealand Cup. And after clinching two golds and one silver at the Winter Youth Olympics in Leysin, Switzerland, in January last year, she claimed both the women's slopestyle gold medal and the women's halfpipe skiing event in the FIS World Cup in Calgary, Canada, one month later. 

Gu's latest triumph was even more electrifying. At the recently concluded X Games in Aspen, the young prospect ended all three events she participated in with a podium finish, a feat accomplished by no newcomer so far in the tournament's history. 

After firmly establishing herself as one of the most promising super stars in the sport, Gu set her sights on scaling new heights on home soil at the Beijing Olympics.

"For me personally, my goal is to win Olympic gold," she told Olympic.org. "And so, that would be so rewarding for all the work that I've done to achieve greatness in the sport." 

Gu shrugged off the mounting pressure of representing China at the Winter Games and chose to focus on the positives. "The Olympic Games mean a lot to a lot of people in China. And so having that platform to be able to compete in, and bring awareness to, the sport and encourage young girls and teenagers everywhere, I think is really special," she beamed. 

"I felt super lucky," she added.