Eileen Gu: The teenage gold medalist with geopolitical ambitions
Eileen Gu, the Chinese American freestyle skiing ace who won her first Olympic gold medal on Monday, draws a kitten on her hand before competitions for good luck and travels with her safety-conscious mother, who makes sure she eats well and sleeps 10 hours each night. On the Twitter-like Chinese social media app Weibo, where the freshly minted gold medalist uses the handle Frog Princess, she posts goofy and prolific selfies. But she is hardly a typical teen.
Ms. Gu is accomplished beyond her years, having taken on challenges demanding poise and maturity that have won her respect as an elite athlete willing to take on a larger cause.
Three years ago, in what she called an “incredibly tough decision,” she
