Behind $30m megastar's kind gesture for 16-year-old Aussie

LIVIGNO: Skiing megastar Eileen Gu is a picture of contrasts.

The 22-year-old American-born Chinese two-time Olympic gold medallist often talks about having "the weight of two countries on my back" but she has a constantly sunny disposition.

She is still very young, yet speaks eloquently about being dragged into geopolitical conflict due to her decision as a teenager to compete for China despite having a deep appreciation for all the things growing up in the US gave her.

READ MORE: This is Australia's bobsled. So why is it orange?

READ MORE: Vonn's failed gamble divides the world

READ MORE: The Olympic cult hero everyone is obsessed with

Gu is already one of the greatest free skiers of all-time and is fiercely competitive, yet she puts her biggest disappointments behind her with grace and humility then speaks to the hungry media for hours after competitions.

The circus that surrounds her is impossible to comprehend until you see it up close.

On Monday Gu skied arguably the greatest slopestyle run of all-time only to be trumped for gold by Swiss superstar Mathilde Gremaud, who was the only person that stood between Gu and an unthinkable gold medal sweep of the three free ski disciplines in Beijing. Gu was still just 18 and had the crushing weight of expectation of China's 1.4 billion people to deal with.

On most days, Gu would have completed the Olympic gold medal set with her first run of the slopestyle final in Livigno, yet when Gremaud again pipped her with an astonishing second run, the silver medallist for a second consecutive Games brushed herself off and, without being prompted, sung her greatest rival's praises.

Before that she approached a crowd of fanatical Chinese fans screaming her name and spent several minutes making sure they knew how much she appreciated them. She filled up their cup, so they could leave the venue with a memory money can't buy. Some athletes refuse to become the kind of people who reinforce the phrase "you should never meet your heroes".

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on Stan Sport.

It's with this context in mind that vision of Gu standing alongside Australian teen prodigy Indra Brown on a World Cup podium in December comes rushing back into view.

At just 15, Brown had just announced herself as a superstar of the future with an outstanding halfpipe run that landed her a bronze medal. While the Melburnian looks at home in the pipe, it was instantly detectable that she was anything but with a bottle of champagne in her hand.

It was a moment that was very relatable to Gu and she leant over from the top step of the podium to lend her protégé, and potentially her next long-term halfpipe rival, a helping hand popping the cork.https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSYUWtNDJ2m/?utm_source=ig_embed&

"How cute was that?" Gu said to Australian media, including Wide World of Sports, when asked in the early hours of Tuesday morning (AEDT) to speak about the podium moment she shared with Brown.

"Champagne moment, adorable. She couldn't figure out how to open her champagne, so I like went over and helped her open it. 

"My first World Cup podium was when I was her age, when I was 15, and the same thing happened to me, but no one helped me, so it was really embarrassing."

Despite the fact that Gu is among the highest paid athletes in the world, raking in more than $30 million last year in endorsements alone, she finds Brown relatable on several levels.

Not only were both freakishly talented teenagers who were given champagne bottles in front of a camera before they knew what to do with them, they have both been guided by the same coach, Jamie Melton, who helped Gu navigate the spotlight at a young age and is now mentoring Brown.

Gu describes the rising Aussie star as a "little me" and despite the current gap in profile, experience and credentials on the world stage, respects her as a genuine potential threat to her status as the undisputed queen of the pipe.

"We have the same coach who brought me up around her age and now she's working with him and so we're very close and very friendly because of that," Gu said.

"But also her ski style reminds me a lot of myself, especially in the pipe. The way she grabs the axis she has in the pipe, going from slope to pipe I think you really see that kind of like DNA shift, which is really special, it makes me really happy.

"I think she's going to be really good for the future of women's pipe skiing. I've been looking for someone like that for a while and she, I think, is the real deal. She's the next thing."

It's not just Gu who's excited about Brown's potential. Despite being one of the youngest competitors at Milano Cortina, the 16-year-old could legitimately be one of the few skiers in the field capable of springing a monumental upset in the pipe.

That absorbing match-up will begin on Thursday morning (AEDT) and will bring to fruition one of Gu's true passions - watching a young person emerge after refusing to conform to the pressures of being a teenager that often result in kids being driven out of their sport.

"Sports have brought me such joy and such unique perspective in life, especially as a young woman," Gu said.

"The confidence it's instilled in me to compete in an extreme sport that's a male-dominated extreme sport, I mean you're literally pushing the boundaries of the human limit.

"That (her silver medal performance on Monday) was the best slopestyle run I've ever done ... being able to do that also instils this level of deep-seated confidence and I think so many young women could stand to benefit from that.

"You see rates of women participating, girls participating in sports drop off precipitously between the ages of 11 and 14, middle school. And that's less about being 'oh, you have to be a professional athlete', but it's just these unspoken social pressures where it becomes uncool or sports no longer belong to you.

"But that's just when girls need to feel more confident, they need to grow into themselves, they need to trust themselves and love themselves and bet on themselves when everything's on the line."

The halfpipe competition will set the stage for two young women striving to push the limits of what's possible. One of them just happens to be Australian.

Strap yourself in.