Eileen Gu’s Net Worth in 2024: The Skier Is Among the World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes

The 21-year-old Olympian and model has earned her income through her sport and various brand deals.

Eileen Gu / Lester Cohen/Getty Images

With SI Swimsuit’s Net Worth Series: Empowering Equal Pay, our goal is to shine a light on incredible athletes while examining income disparities and promoting equal pay across industries.

Professional freestyle skier Eileen Gu is an incredible athlete with a number of accolades to her name. In addition to several achievements at the X Games, Gu is an Olympian who made her debut at the 2022 games in Beijing. She represented the People’s Republic of China at the winter games and took home two gold medals and one silver.

The athlete was named to the TIME100 List in 2022, and the Forbes30 Under 30 List the same year. She is also a two-time ESPY Award winner.

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In addition to her success on the slopes, Gu is also a model who has collaborated with publications like InStyle China and Vogue France. And just last week, she was announced as one of SI Swimsuit’s newest athletes who will be featured in the 2025 magazine. Gu traveled to Boca Raton, Fla., for the feature, where she posed for visual artist Ben Horton.

Below, we’re taking a closer look at Gu’s salary, net worth and brand sponsorship deals.

Eileen Gu was photographed by Ben Horton in Boca Raton, Fla. Swimsuit by Norma Kamali. / Ben Horton/Sports Illustrated

How did Eileen Gu get her start?

Gu started skiing at the age of 3, and turned pro in 2020 when she was just 16 years old. The following year, the California native became the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal at the X Games, as well as the first rookie to take home three medals (two gold and one bronze) at the event.

Eileen Gu college

The 21-year-old professional athlete makes sure to prioritize what’s important to her outside of athletics, and that includes her education. Gu studies quantum physics at Stanford University, and is a self-described “huge nerd.”

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“I really like to learn and to stretch my mind,” she told Olympics.com. “That’s what I really love about quantum physics; it’s very conceptual and it makes you question the nature of reality. That’s very fascinating to me because in my own way, when I’m skiing, I guess I’m bending the laws of what’s possible in the first place. Achieving the impossible has always been something that has drawn me in, so that’s where I see the parallel between quantum physics and skiing.”

Eileen Gu 2024 salary

Last year, Forbes reported that Gu was the second-highest paid female athlete in the world (behind only Polish tennis player Iga Świątek) with an annual salary of $22.1 million. While her exact salary information for 2024 has not been published, it is estimated to be within a similar $20 million range.

Eileen Gu endorsement deals and brand partners

Throughout her career as a professional athlete, Gu has partnered with a number of notable companies, including Victoria’s Secret, Tiffany & Co., Red Bull, Estée Lauder, Therabody, Cadillac, Porsche, Bank of China, Fendi, Gucci and others.

Eileen Gu / Taylor Hill/Getty Images

When she joined The VS Collective in 2021 as a founding member, Gu noted she hoped to “unite and inspire” by sharing her story and experiences through the brand’s campaigns.

“I am so honored to be a part of such an inspiring group of women and to work with a brand that is looking to break boundaries and use their platform to uplift, champion and advocate for women across the world,” Gu stated in a press release at the time.

Eileen Gu social media

With 2 million followers on Instagram and another 423,000 plus on TikTok, Gu regularly keeps her fans up to date on the happenings in her life. Whether she’s sharing content from the slopes or a red carpet event, or showcasing her latest magazine cover, the athlete is known for highlighting her robust success on social. She also uses her platform to encourage young girls to try out winter sports like freestyle skiing.

Eileen Gu charity work

Though she’s known for her success on the slopes, Gu has also hit the pavement on more than one occasion to raise money for charity. In 2022, she participated in a charity run in Beijing to benefit children with congenital heart disease, while Gu also competed in this year’s Wings For Life World Run to benefit spinal cord injury research.

Additionally, Gu has served as a global ambassador for the Asia Society of Southern California and Gangwon 2024. The latter, also known as the Winter Youth Olympics, were held in South Korea earlier this year.

“It is an honor to be named Global Ambassador for YOG Gangwon 2024, as this event and the values it champions align perfectly with the message I hope to spread to young people worldwide: Sport is for everyone, regardless of gender, age, ability, geographic location, and religion,” Gu told Olympics.com. “It has the capacity to unite people and serve as an avenue for communication, empathy and friendship.”

Eileen Gu net worth

Gu’s net worth is widely reported to be between $20 million and $32 million. To provide some additional context, in 2021, her annual earnings were estimated to be over $31.4 million, while Gu earned approximately $31 million the following year. And as previously mentioned, Gu’s 2023 salary was about $22.1 million.

Eileen Gu / The Image Gate/Getty Images

Eileen Gu’s net worth compared to professional male freestyle skiers

Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy took home a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and also competed at the 2018 and 2022 games on behalf of both the U.S. and Great Britain. Though there’s no updated information today, Kenworthy’s estimated net worth in 2018 was around $300,000.

Former professional freestyle skier Jon Olsson won nine X Game medals throughout the course of his athletic career, and the entrepreneur and YouTuber has an estimated net worth of $8 million today.

While Gu’s net worth is far and above that of these two male freestyle skiers, there is still plenty of work to be done when it comes to pay equity between men and women in their respective sports.

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