Ailing (Eileen) Gu: "I'm not perfect"
In a viral live Douyin show in China, Gu appeared with Chinese megastar Lay Zhang where the double Olympic champ talked about being real on social media.
Freestyle Skiing
Ailing (Eileen) Gu joined a Douyin live show with Chinese megastar Lay Zhang, and they nearly broke the internet.
Gu and Zhang talked about recording a song together with over 18 million people watching live at its peak and the video amassed over 120 million likes.
Olympic champion, model, influencer, singer, currently writing a book, accepted to Stanford, it is tempting to ask: Is there anything Eileen Gu can't do?
When Chinese sportcaster Liu Yuxi asked Gu during the live show about how she wanted to inspire other girls the 18-year-old said, "I don’t want to sound like some “perfect” person who has so much to teach others.
"Some people with filters on the television look different from what they look like in real life, others seem to achieve things easily.
"I want to be a real person and show my real life, the process of how grow. I have some nice moments while I also have some bad ones.
"I'll put on makeup, and I'll also get zits. That’s my real life and I want to show it to the public."
Eileen Gu: "I'm not perfect all the time"
In 15 days on the Douyin platform - the Chinese precursor to TikTok - Gu picked up over 17.6 million followers and counting.
But the attention is nothing new for Gu who went viral just for eating her lunch at Beijing 2022.
Now having won a historic three medals - two of them gold - at the Games, this Olympic champ is a global freeski phenomenon who has transcended her sport and become a Chinese pop-culture icon.
Her appearance and song (If they actually record it!) with Lay Zhang, known in China as Zhang Yixing, is proof of that, but when she's asked how she hopes she's seen by others, particularly on her social media she says:
"I want to be a girl who always shows her love for sports, tries to dive deeper and become more knowledgeable and who learns and makes progress, as I’m not perfect all the time.
"I also want to be a girl who enjoys life, as I just do what I really love.
"What I want to achieve is that people can see my passion through social media and in other ways."