Eileen Gu, as told by her Stanford roommate: ‘One of the smartest people I’ve ever met’

LIVIGNO, Italy — Lauren Koong walked down the dormitory hallway on her first day as a Stanford University freshman in the fall of 2022 and found a fellow student having trouble with her laptop.

“Hey, can you come help me for a sec?” the student asked. Koong obliged, oblivious she was speaking to someone who had just broken records at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. “I didn’t really know who she was,” Koong tells The Athletic from Stanford’s campus.

In that first week, Koong and Eileen Gu cycled to the New Student Orientation events and locked their bikes together. Students, and their parents, would come up and ask Gu for pictures, Koong often the photographer. At one Asian society gathering, a swarm of people descended upon the then-19-year-old. In that moment, Koong got a taste of what it is like to be Gu the celebrity, the American-born Chinese athlete who is bigger than her sport of freestyle skiing.

Over time, Gu’s presence around campus became the norm. But there have been unnerving moments, Koong says: their college room broken into, students taking selfies outside their door, simply because of the name on it, and an assault. “Physically assaulted on the street,” Gu said last week. Koong was the friend she texted when it happened in their first year at Stanford. “Where are you?” the text message read. “This guy just tried to grab me, I’m talking to the police.” When Koong arrived she noticed her roommate was shaking. “That was the scariest day,” Koong said. In a statement to The Athletic, Stanford University said, “the safety and well-being of every member of our community” is a “top priority.”

Most days, however, Gu and Koong are roommates and classmates, friends swapping notes, debating philosophy into the early hours, exploring the Bay Area. They hike, play board games, and run.

It’s just that Koong’s best friend also happens to be a superstar; a two-time Olympic gold medalist, one of the wealthiest female athletes on the planet, an IMG model, the all-time leader in freeskiing World Cup wins, the most decorated women’s freestyle skier in Olympic history and a 22-year-old who attracts controversy because, aged 15, she decided to represent China, the country where her mother was born.

Koong sees Gu as just Eileen, her gregarious friend who loves scary movies and the Chinese dish Beijing Kao Ya. Until, that is, Gu is confronted with a “mob of people” asking for pictures. “When you’re at school it fades away,” she says. “You’re like: ‘Oh my God, did you finish this paper yet?’”

It can often seem as if Gu defies the rules of time and space. Her friends are befuddled over how she balances the multi-faceted demands of her life. “No two weeks are the same, no two days are the same,” says Koong who, like Gu, is majoring in international relations.

In freshman year, when they had only just met, Gu had to miss a class and asked Koong if she could send her notes. “Of course,” said Koong. “Where are you going?” Paris fashion week, came the reply.

Professors, says Koong, treat Gu like a “normal” student. Most have an attendance policy and an absence means a paper must be written as recompense. “She’s writing a lot of papers,” says Koong, adding that her friend often does them on the plane or in the make-up chair. But, Koong says, Gu — who has taken quantum physics and philosophy classes — has never missed an assignment.

“When she’s at school, she’s locked in at school,” says Koong. “When she’s competing, she’s so focused.”

It is Gu’s insatiable work ethic that allows her to excel in multiple fields. “That’s why she’s able to do so many things at once,” she says, revealing her roommate is “very messy,” with things “everywhere” on her side of the room.

Eileen Gu is majoring in international relations at Stanford University. (Lauren Koong)

Gu has taken the current academic year off to focus on the Olympics. And though injury curtailed her 2025 season, she competes on the World Cup circuit often, meaning she frequently dials into her classes remotely. She has been known to fly in for mid-term and final exams and then straight out again. “She just has unlimited energy,” says Koong.

During the off-season, Gu balances her studies with her training in Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about a five-hour drive from Stanford, at the weekend. Her friends will sometimes go skiing, too. “We’ll agree to meet at a tree, I look up and she’s already there,” says Koong.

A lover of running — as a child she aspired to make it into Stanford’s cross-country team — Gu is always active and will often ask Koong if she wants to play basketball or do a spin class. On one occasion, Gu came to class in her gym kit, ran 10 miles to a meeting, had the meeting, ran 10 miles back and then hung out with her friends, playing Scrabble.

“I am not an active person,” says Koong. “But she makes it fun.”

Eileen Gu and her friends will sometimes ski over the weekend during the off-season. (Lauren Koong)

Gu said on Instagram on learning she’d got into Stanford, that it was “the only dream I’ve had for longer than my dream of going to the Olympics.” She was admitted in 2022, though there was controversy around that too, a petition — started by parents of prospective students and Chinese Americans — to keep her out.

In class, she often adds value to the discussion, according to Koong. “She is truly one of the smartest people I have ever met in my entire life.” Indeed, she graduated from school, the private San Francisco University High School, a year early. Chinese media often references that Gu scored 1,580 (out of 1,600) in her SATs.

The pair have shared their secrets and spoken about their darkest moments, with Gu talking openly with Koong about her mental struggles after the 2022 Winter Olympics and the pressure she feels representing both China and the U.S. “I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever,” Gu told the media last week. One of the things she listed was the “weight of two countries on my back.”

Born and raised in San Francisco, Gu is the daughter of a first-generation Chinese immigrant, Yan Gu, and her father is American. China does not allow dual citizenship, and Gu has declined to disclose her citizenship status.

During these Games, Republican politicians Florida’s Sen. Rick Scott and Tennessee’s Rep. Andy Ogles have criticized her on social media. This week, in an interview with Fox News, Vice President JD Vance was asked about Gu’s decision to represent China, one which she made in 2015. “I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” he said. Gu’s response on Thursday was to say she hadn’t taken offence to Vance’s comments. According to USA Today, when asked by reporters whether she felt like a “punching bag for a certain strand of American politics,” she said: “I do.”

Before the 2022 Games, some right-wing commentators in the U.S. called her “dumb” for representing China and that she has “betrayed America.” In 2025, she said some of the criticism around the 2022 Games had made her “really angry.”

Eileen Gu with fans after winning silver in the women’s freeski big air at the Milan Cortina Games. (Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

Questions about her decision to represent China infiltrate her college life, too, says Koong. At the end of Gu and Koong’s final presentation in an economics class on the Chinese economy, Gu was asked about her switch. Her friend butted in. Koong said she told the classmate that the question was inappropriate and “way outside” the scope of the presentation.

“For people to have the nerve in a classroom setting to ask about something so unrelated to the topic,” Koong says, “but that’s just the life she lives.”

“Can you imagine what it is like to be 18 and have people all over the world say you’re the worst person in the world?” Koong adds. “That takes a toll on your wellbeing. Having to see those comments, people saying you should die and kill yourself, that’s horrible. No one should have to go through that, especially at such a young age.

“You’re saying all of this from behind the screen. You don’t even know her.”

Koong says Gu is getting better at blocking out the abuse. “Things don’t get easier, you just get stronger,” the Olympian told reporters last week.

Gu earned $23.1million last year, according to Forbes, the majority of which came from endorsement deals, ranking her the fourth highest-paid female athlete in the world, a spot she has held since the 2022 Winter Olympics. Forbes recently reported that Gu is the highest-paid athlete at these Games.

“In the same way that you would talk about your friends’ lives and jobs, we talk about it all the time,” says Koong of Gu’s commercial deals.

There are benefits as a friend, too. When Koong went on a date once, Gu loaned her a beautiful necklace. “Instead of wearing whatever, you’re sharing her Louis Vuitton,” says Koong. The contents of Koong’s makeup bag ranges from standard drugstore products to the most expensive brands around, thanks to Gu.

The pair studied for a term at Oxford University’s prestigious Magdalen College in 2024. Though Gu was also recognized in England, she would also go up to strangers and introduce herself. Members of the Chinese Society could not believe the athlete was attending one of their dinners, says Koong, but Gu used the opportunity for another purpose.

“I’m actually trying to set up my friend Lauren,” she announced. “Does anyone have any options?”

Eileen Gu became the most decorated female freestyle skier in Olympic history at Milan Cortina. (Lauren Koong)

Theirs is an intimate friendship that can only come from living together. Koong can recite Gu’s late-night study order — sushi, specifically sashimi and uni.

Despite the attention and achievements, Koong maintains Gu has stayed true to herself.

“You would expect a lot of celebrities to have these big egos or think the world revolves around them,” she says. “When I see her on TV, it’s the exact same person as the girl I’m sharing a room with.

“There’s no difference between the Eileen the world knows and the Eileen I know.”