Born in California and representing the United States before switching to China,teenager Gu Ailing will be most likely to be one of the faces of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The 17-year-old is a freeskier(自由式滑雪運動員)and grade-A student with an American father and Chinese mother.She grew up and still lives in the United States,but in June 2019 she made the“quite difficult”decision to compete for China.She wrote on Instagram that she was“proud of my heritage and equally proud of my American upbringings(培養)”.

As for the decision to compete on behalf of China,she said it is“valuable opportunity to help inspire millions of young people in China where my mom was born.”

Gu graduated from a San Francisco high school last year and is focusing on her Beijing 2022 training.It is reported that She scored 1,580 points out of a maximum 1,600 in the SAT(美國大學入學考試),and has been offered a place at Stanford.

Gu started on the snow at the age of 3,was competing in national competitions at 9 and won her first World Cup event at 15.She won two gold medals and a silver for China at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne,Switzerland.On Jan.30th,2021,Gu made her debut(首次亮相)at the X Games in Aspen,Colorado and won two golds and a bronze.

“My goal is to win Olympic gold,”she told the official Olympic website.“It’s the top achievement.And that would be rewarding for all the work that I’ve done to achieve greatness in the sport.”