Four-time Olympic medallist Eileen Gu is vying for gold at the Winter Olympics in Milan. Yet, just ahead of Gu qualifying for the Big Air finals, the Wall Street Journal put out a report.

On February 13, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese government had planned to monetarily support Gu's bid for gold alongside another american-born athelte, Zhu Yi, in 2025.

“In 2025, the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau was set to pay Gu and another athlete a combined $6.6 million,” WSJ's Rachel Bachman wrote in her report.

"In total, Beijing’s sports bureau was set to pay Gu and Zhu nearly 100 million yuan, or $14 million, over the past three years. The most recent allocation was for 'striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics,'" the report read.

The WSJ also noted that the sports bureau had "accidentally" included Eileen Gu and Zhu Yi's names, and later deleted them to rectify the oversight.

On February 9, Gu won silver in the women's freeski slopestyle event. The 22-year-old then progressed to Big Air, next to Canada's Megan Oldham.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders,” Eileen Gu said after the slopestyle event. “Just being able to ski through all of that, you know. To still show my best and still be so deeply in love with the sport,” she added.

However, despite her recent win, there have been some reports that the athlete isn't satisfied.

Eileen Gu Called the Schedule “Unfair”

The New York Times posted about Gu's complaint on X. “China’s Eileen Gu has criticized the scheduling of her freeski events at the 2026 Winter Olympics, saying the program ‘doesn’t make sense’ and is 'really unfair,’” read the post.

The athlete is competing in three disciplines, which are slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air. She has already qualified for Big Air, which will take place on Monday. However, the qualifying round of the halfpipe will take place on Thursday.

So, the Monday competition will take away her training time for the Thursday one. Despite the compromise attempts Eileen Gu made, the FIS did not budge, which led her to express her disappointment in FIS.

"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," added Eileen Gu.

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Written by

Deblina Roy

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi