The woman behind Team Eileen Gu

Still dressed in her black ski jumpsuit with gold dragon motifs, her dark hair pulled into a bun with two blonde streaks framing her face, newly minted Big Air gold medallist Eileen Gu was polished and media savvy at her first post-event press conference of the Winter Olympics.

Faced with a room of international journalists, the 19-year-old held court like a seasoned professional, offering her thoughts on a range of questions, including six different attempts to find out what her nationality actually is.

Her eloquent answers, while a stark contrast to her Chinese teammates' scripted replies, did not happen by chance.

Many of her career choices - from specialising in freestyle skiing to her surprise move to represent China in the Games - stemmed from her mother Gu Yan.

The 58-year-old single mother, who is an avid skier, is her daughter's bodyguard, manager and biggest cheerleader all in one.

Never far from the effervescent teen, the proud mother posts videos on her YouTube account of her daughter's talents. There are videos of her best competition runs, piano playing and, tellingly, a school speech from 2015.

Speaking eloquently to her schoolmates in America on the disparity between men and women in sports, an 11-year-old Eileen warned of the bumpy road ahead that is life. "My experiences have made me more tenacious, and taught me to meet my setbacks in life with open arms... however, there is no way I could have done it without my supportive mother always behind me," she said.

Four years later, in 2019, she opted to represent China, with the US ski federation calling it a "tough decision for us" and saying "we spoke at length with Eileen, her mom and her coaches".

But who exactly is Gu Yan?

She was born in Shanghai to two government engineers: Her mother worked at the Ministry of Transport while her father was the chief electrical engineer of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Ms Gu is a biology graduate from China's prestigious Peking University. At 22, she left for the United States to pursue a master's degree in molecular biology at Auburn University. She also earned an MBA from Stanford University, according to a 1998 Chinese magazine article titled From Wall Street To China.

She went to build a successful career in finance as a venture capitalist specialising in China. In 1997, she founded a company that aimed to build a Silicon Valley for China but public records show that Oriental Weibo International Information Technology has folded.

Ms Gu started several new businesses including DreamComeGu in 2019. According to her LinkedIn profile, she owned the company as a "private investor and expert in China investment".

As a mother, Ms Gu has refused to speak on the record about her daughter unless she is allowed to review the article before it is published.

Her daughter's American agent Tom Yaps told The Economist newspaper that the mother was being extra cautious because of political sensitivities. "One thing, and a career is ruined," he said.

And Ms Gu knows the value of her daughter's career - it is possibly her biggest investment to date.

The teenager's face is all over the streets of Beijing, endorsing brands both local - such as coffee chain Luckin and e-commerce platform JD.com - and international, such as like Tiffany & Co and Louis Vuitton.

Chinese sports industry website SportsMoney.cn put the total value of her endorsements at around 220 million yuan (S$46.6 million)

The skier is keen to frame her decision to compete for China as one about culture and sentimentality, and about promoting the sport, preferring to leave geopolitical tensions out of it.

While questions about her nationality, her mysterious father and the reasons behind her decision continue to swirl, what is clear is that she has inherited her mother's tenacity and savvy.

Hugely popular on Chinese social media platform Weibo and Instagram, the teen has an intrinsic understanding of the different approaches needed on the platforms.

On Instagram, where she recently crossed one million followers, she is a cool freestyle skier who also models, posting pictures of her photo shoots and ski runs.

But on the Chinese Internet, she is passionate about her mother's homeland, cooks with her grandmother and speaks fluent Mandarin. She has 4.5 million fans on Weibo alone.

At last Tuesday's press conference, Gu spoke of her mother's support and how she spends "25 to 30 per cent of every year in China".

Pressed repeatedly about her nationality, she turned to an oft-repeated phrase about feeling Chinese in China and American in the United States. But with an added twist this time.

"No matter what I say, if people don't have a good heart, they won't believe me because they can't empathise with people who do have a good heart," she said as her mother looked on.

"So in that sense, I feel as though it's a lot easier to block out the hate now. And also, they're never going to know what it feels like to win an Olympic gold medal."