WASHINGTON — Three-time Olympic medalist Eileen Gu is back for the Milan Cortana Winter Games, and once again she is representing China instead of the United States — the country where she was born.

Whether she is walking a fashion runway, amping herself up at the top of a mountain or digging into one of those physics lessons she takes “for fun,” Olympic champion Eileen Gu can probably boil down her main goals to these: Do her best. And bring as many people along for the ride as possible.

Why you rarely see low-income countries at the Winter Olympics: A skeleton sled costs more than many earn in a year.

BEIJING | Xinhua | As the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics opened Friday night, 15-year-old Chen Keyu, a rising star on China’s national ice hockey team, sat glued to her screen in Shenzhen, tracking every shift of the hockey competitions in Italy.

Eileen Gu and her citizenship have been a major topic of debate for some time now. However, she tuned the noise out and embarked on her journey to make China proud again in the 2026 Winter Olympics.