Freestyle skier Eileen Gu holds the fourth spot on the 2025 list of top-earning female sports stars, behind only tennis aces Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Iga Swiatek.
Gu generates most of her £17 million in annual earnings from sponsorships and endorsements, totaling £16.9 million outside competition prize money. Gauff leads in off-court revenue alone.
Olympic Breakthrough Fuels Rise
The San Francisco-born athlete gained global prominence at 18, winning two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. In 2019, she chose to compete for China based on her mother’s heritage.
Gu shared her reasoning: “I have decided to compete for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mum was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help promote the sport I love.”
Lucrative Brand Partnerships
Key deals with Porsche, Red Bull, Anta Sports, TCL Electronics, IMG, Louis Vuitton, and Victoria’s Secret drive her wealth. A massive online audience—over 7 million Weibo followers and 2 million on Instagram—boosts further opportunities, especially given freestyle skiing’s modest prize purses.
Contrasting Prize Money
Recent wins highlight the gap: Gu earned roughly £32,000 from her first two 2025/26 FIS season victories and about £40,400 from December’s Snow League event in China, including a £3,600 appearance fee.
Preparing for 2026 Defense
Now 22, Gu gears up to defend big air and halfpipe titles at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. She describes her mindset: “I’ve been training so much, I’ve been working so hard, and every single time I stay the extra hour, do the extra run, it’s proof to myself, it’s evidence to myself that I’m a winner and I deserve to win. I train like I’ve never won, and I compete like I’ve never lost.”
Gu enters with strong credentials: two golds and a bronze from World Championships, three golds and a bronze from Winter X Games, plus two golds and a silver at Youth Winter Olympics.
