At 16, Eileen Gu was asked to choose between her first Free Ski World Cup and her high school state cross-country championships. She chose running.
Her teammates’ parents had other ideas.
“We really appreciate what you’re doing for our girls, it’s a team sport,” they told her and her mother. “But if it was our daughter, we would have them go to the World Cup.”
She went. Scored enough points to earn her own spot the following year. Took second. Won on her third appearance. Six Olympic medals later — including gold in the halfpipe at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games — she is now the most decorated freestyle skier, male or female, in Olympic history.
All because someone else’s parents talked sense into her.
She was a runner first
This is the part most people don’t know. Gu didn’t grow up as a ski prodigy. She grew up in San Francisco doing what she calls “the weekend warrior thing” — four hours in the car to Lake Tahoe, two days on the mountain, 45 to 50 days a season. Meanwhile, she was competing seriously on San Francisco University High School’s cross-country and track teams.
“I was running cross country and track in high school and that was my big thing,” she told The Burnouts podcast last summer. “I thought I was going to be recruited.”
As a freshman, she was placing 40th at the California state cross-country championships, running three miles in 20:11. On the track, she was clocking 5:31 for the mile and 2:36 for the 800. Not bad for a 14-year-old who was supposedly just a skier on weekends.
Running is still the engine
Even now, at the top of her sport, Gu keeps running at the center of her marathon training. At Milano Cortina, she was the only woman to enter all three freeski disciplines — slopestyle, halfpipe, and big air — competing across three weeks with no real recovery time between events. The big air final clashed with a key halfpipe training session. She collected three medals anyway.
“This is why I run so much,” she said at a press conference before the halfpipe final. “I do three events. I build up my VO2 max. I work hard so that I can go back to back to back and compete for three weeks with no off days.”
She also quoted Kobe Bryant, said she has “goldfish mode,” and then went out and won gold. Classic Eileen Gu.
@betonyoumentality Confidence is built through preparation, and knowing you have have put in the work to support your goals. Well said @Eileen Gu Via @Yahoo Sports ♬ original sound – Bet On YOU Mentality
About that marathon time
Here’s where we need a moment.
In August 2024, Gu lined up for the Marathon Pour Tous in Paris — the mass participation race held alongside the Olympics. It was her first marathon ever. She had trained by running up to 10 miles a day for three weeks. No dedicated coach, no structured training plan.
She ran 3:24:36.
To put that in context: the average first-time marathon finisher takes somewhere between four and five hours. Gu finished faster than roughly 70 percent of everyone who has ever run the distance — on her debut, with three weeks of prep — and posted about it on Instagram with the energy of someone who had just discovered a new hobby. “Sub 3:25 first marathon!!! Talk 2 meeeeee.”
If you want to know what a 3:24 marathon pace actually feels like per mile, our marathon pace guide breaks it all down. Spoiler: it’s fast.
She also ran the 2022 San Francisco Half Marathon in 1:41:07, finishing second in her age group. Her 5km personal best is 19:18.
She is 22. She also studies international relations at Stanford and has a modeling career. Some people are just built differently.
