Embracing Femininity Was a ‘Pivotal Step’ of Freestyle Skier Eileen Gu’s Development

The record-breaking Olympian joins SI Swimsuit for the 2025 issue.

At just 21 years old, Eileen Gu’s résumé is larger than life, with a legacy primed for the history books.

The freestyle skier became the youngest Olympic champion in the category at just 18 years old. During the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Gu made more history as the first freestyle skier to win three medals at one Olympic Games. In 2023, Forbes reported that the California native made an annual salary of $22.1 million, making her the second-highest paid female athlete in the world behind Polish tennis player Iga Świątek.

When she’s not competing on the world’s biggest stages, Gu keeps her mind as active as her body; the bilingual student studies quantum physics at Stanford.

Now, Gu is ditching her winter apparel for swimwear as she takes home her newest title: SI Swimsuit model. She’s featured in the 2025 issue, out today, with a gorgeous photo shoot captured by Ben Horton in Boca Raton, Fla. In an exclusive interview with the brand, Gu shared how this newest step in her career was unimaginable as a young girl.

“Free skiing is a very male-dominated sport. I think the first time that I had girls on my team, I was around 14 or 15 [...] so I definitely felt as though I stuck out a little bit,” Gu shared while on location for her photo shoot. In turn, she reflected, she would shield her femininity as an act of conformity.

View Eileen Gu’s full 2025 SI Swimsuit gallery here.

“I think [I] was definitely trying to mask myself and trying to fit in and be more accepted,” Gu elaborated. “I wanted to look like the other people in the industry, and for the most part, those were boys. So, I think reconciling with my femininity—particularly when I turned 14,15 and started working in fashion more—was a pivotal step of my development.”

Eileen Gu was photographed by Ben Horton at The Boca Raton. Swimsuit by Always on Holiday. / Ben Horton/Sports Illustrated

As Gu found strength in her body and her style, her talent in her sport grew alongside her. As one of the biggest names in freestyle skiing, she plays a pivotal role in paving the way for the women and girls who look up to her.

“The progression of women’s skiing has just been skyrocketing in the last, you know, five years, 10 years, and it has been so inspiring to first watch it when I was younger and then now be a part of it," Gu continued.

“It has made me really retrospective and made me introspective in thinking about what is the legacy that I want to contribute to this sport,” she added. “I think a big part of that really is inclusivity—making girls feel as though there’s a place for them.”