Freestyle skier Eileen Gu is a woman of many talents.
When she's not winning medals on snow-covered slopes across the world, you can often find her gracing the cover of Vogue or pursuing a degree in international relations at Stanford University. It was inevitable that she would bring her stylish flair to the slopestyle course in Livigno.
The Chinese skier qualified for the women's freeski slopestyle final on Saturday wearing a ski suit woven with her Chinese heritage and personal anecdotes.
Although born and raised in San Francisco, Gu competes for China, her mother's homeland. When speaking with reporters after her run, she explained how she and a fellow Stanford student designed the suit in honor of her family heritage, as well as her dominance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, where she became the first athlete to earn three freestyle skiing medals at a single Winter Olympics.
The all-white suit was custom-made by Chinese sports equipment company Anta, who sponsors Gu. The color imitates the white base of the Chinese ceramic style known as qinghua, which consists of white porcelain glazed with cobalt blue designs. Similar to qinghua, Gu's suit featured blue dragon embroidery with golden detailing running up her arms. A patch with the face of a fierce-looking white dragon is stitched on her upper right arm, just underneath her name.
Clouds wrap around the legs of her suit as a way to represent the flying feeling she gets in the air when she performs her tricks on the course.
Additional details include a thermometer stitched onto her left sleeve, which changes color with the temperature as a tribute to her love of mood rings, as well as a compass for her love of academics.
Gu overcame a fall on her first run of qualifications to ski a smoother second run and nail her spot in the final. Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud finished qualification with the highest scores of the day after landing two clean runs.
"Gotta keep everyone on the edge of their seats," Gu joked after her run.
Gu will be back in action on Monday, Feb. 9, for a chance to win her first Olympic gold medal in slopestyle.