By JOSEPH WILSON, Associated Press
LIVIGNO, Italy — When not risking her neck performing acrobatic tricks on skis, San Francisco’s Eileen Gu loves to strut down runways and pose for magazine covers as a model.
So, it was no surprise she wore the most fashionable ski suit at the Winter Olympics.
Gu qualified for the women’s slopestyle final on Saturday wearing an outfit full of details inspired by her Chinese heritage and her own personal quirks.
The 22-year-old Gu jumped at the chance to talk about her suit after coming off the course.
“Oh my gosh, I’ve been waiting for this moment, fit check!” she said before launching into a breakdown of her getup.
The American-born Gu competes for China, where her mother is from. She said she and a fellow Stanford student designed her suit to honor that family background while also giving a nod to the 2022 Beijing Games, where Gu became a global freeski star when she won two golds and a silver medal.
The bone white base color of the suit, made by her Chinese sportswear sponsor Anta, mimics Chinese ceramics — also called “China” — creating a backdrop for the blue graphics and pale golden highlights.
A Chinese-style dragon rears on the sleeve below another patch of a dragon looking fierce and a logo with her name in bold letters. Her name also appears in scrawled graffiti-like lettering under a flap near her neck. That one is covered by a bib, which, because it’s white, does nothing to ruin the look. she said.
“Of course, I had to bring in the dragon element which was relevant at the last Olympics as well,” she said. “It brought me strength, it brought me courage, it served me well, so I wanted to keep that.”
One would be hard pressed to find a more personalized suit, which includes a thermometer that changes color according to the temperature.
“I was obsessed with mood rings when I was little,” she said. “Like, you know, you put them on and they change color with temperature. And so it’s a color changing thermometer.”
There is also a tiny compass that Gu said was to satisfy her intellectual side. (She did enter Stanford a year early after acing the SAT after all.)
“I just wanted a little modular element for my little nerd brain to nerd out on. But in case you get lost, I can tell you which way is north,” she said.
But at the end, it came to back to the sport she excels at.
Pointing to another spot on her suit, Gu said: “I have clouds down here to represent the feeling of flying, which I love so much about freeskiing.”
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AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.
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