Eileen Gu is a Stanford graduate. The most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history posted photos from graduation weekend on her Instagram, wearing a white gown to celebrate the end of her undergraduate years.
It caps off a big winter. Gu won three medals at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, taking gold in the women’s halfpipe and silver in both big air and slopestyle, bringing her career total to six Olympic medals.
The Eileen Gu Stanford Dream, Years in the Making
Gu got into Stanford on early admission back in December 2020, but she held off enrolling to chase Olympic glory first, the Pro Football Network reported. She joined the freshman class in fall 2022, after winning three medals at the Beijing Games.
Gu has said Stanford was her dream since age 6, “the only dream I’ve had for longer than my dream of going to the Olympics,” per Stanford Report. She scored 1580 on her SATs and was the first student at her school to ever graduate a year early.
From Quantum Physics to International Relations
On campus, Gu tried quantum physics before landing on an international relations major, Stanford Report noted. In a 2023 interview with Olympics.com, she put the early physics interest down to being “a huge nerd” off the slopes, adding that she liked work that “makes you question the nature of reality.”
Gu also spent 2024 at Oxford, England, through Stanford’s Bing Overseas Studies Program, the Pro Football Network reported. She joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and took leave from school to train for the 2026 Games, according to Sportskeeda.
A Skiing Prodigy From the Bay Area
Born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu first got on skis at age three and tried freestyle at eight, winning a national junior title a year later. Her mother, Yan Gu, who earned an MBA from Stanford in 1994, raised her as a single parent and made eight-hour round-trip trips to Lake Tahoe every weekend so she could train.
Gu competes across halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air. At the 2022 Beijing Olympics, she became the first athlete to win three medals in freeskiing at a single Games.
The Choice to Compete for China
Gu was 15 when she announced she would compete for China, sharing the news in a June 2019 Instagram post and calling it an “incredibly tough decision.” She has said she made the call to grow the sport in her mother’s homeland and give young Chinese skiers more representation.
The decision drew plenty of criticism, and Gu has spoken about it more than once. “I’m American when I’m in the U.S., and I’m Chinese when I’m in China,” she told reporters in Beijing. She also told The Athletic she dealt with death threats and a campus break-in during her time at Stanford.
What the Eileen Gu Stanford Degree Means Next
Gu now holds a Stanford degree and six Olympic medals, and at 22 she has not said what comes next. She remains the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history, with a competitive career far from finished.
