"Don’t need to recover at the cost of giving 110% effort"- Eileen Gu opens up on learning to balance rest and training

Chinese skiing star Eileen Gu took to social media to share a glimpse of her first-ever spa day and also a message about the importance of recovery. The two-time Olympic champion is still recovering from the injury she suffered earlier this season at the X Games Aspen 2025, ruling her out of competitions since February. She has focused on other ventures during this time, such as appearing on SI Swimsuit Magazine.

Eileen Gu is regarded as one of the best freestyle skiers in the world. She gained recognition on the international stage when she won two gold medals at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, one in Big Air and one in Halfpipe. She also claimed a silver medal in the Slopestyle event, establishing herself as one of the top skiing stars in the world. She last competed at the FIS Freeski World Cup slopestyle event in Switzerland, where she placed first with a score of 81.22 points.

Gu took to Instagram to share a message on recovery, writing:

"My first spa day ever & a reflection on recovery: I’d always thought of the need for recovery as indicative of lack - lack of fitness when it came to training volume, lack of mental resilience when it came to metabolizing difficult emotions, lack of toughness when it came to taking hard hits."

She added:

“You should rest more” translated to “you should compromise the fast pace and indomitable spirit that made you good in the first place. It turns out I was wrong about both … yes, I should rest more, but no, I don’t need to recover at the cost of giving 110% effort."

Eileen Gu also made an appearance at the 20th Annual Hammer Museum Gala in Los Angeles, where she met NBA legend Lebron James.

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Eileen Gu: "Looking forward to the Winter Olympics"

Gu at the 2025 Laureus World Sport Awards Madrid - Source: Getty

Eileen Gu expressed her excitement towards competing at the Winter Olympics in Milan during an interview at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2025. Gu is a brand ambassador for luxury watch brand IWC Schaffhausen and helped present their new Ingenieur collection.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, she said: (0:07 onwards)

"I'm very much looking forward to the Winter Olympics in Milan in 2026. Doing something for the second time is a lot harder than doing it for the first is what I'm learning, and so taking it day by day and really focusing on my mental and how I deal with pressure,"

Eileen Gu's partnership with IWC Schaffhausen started in 2021, with the freestyle skier attending the Watches and Wonders exhibition for the first time in 2023.