Eileen Gu breaks Chinese social media after winning Winter Olympics gold

Eileen Gu amassed an army of cynics when she spurned Team USA to represent China at the Beijing Games.

Moments after the biggest run of her life, the 18-year-old freestyle skiing prodigy was asked about her status as a US citizen, her feelings on Peng Shuai and the incessant hate she has received on social media.

«If people don't believe me, if people don't like me, then that's their loss,» Gu said.

«They're never going to win the Olympics.»

Gu did just that, earning the first of what she and her many fans in Beijing hope could be three gold medals by cranking out the first 1620 of her career in her final turn, stunning Tess Ledeux of France to win the Olympic debut of women's freeski big air.

The American-born Gu had never landed the double cork 1620 — a move in which skiers spin four-and-a-half times while rotating twice off-axis while 6 metres in the air.

«I want all the girls to break their boundaries,» she said in Chinese, via an interpreter.

«I want them to think if Eileen can do it, I can do it.»

A flood of interest in Gu's win briefly crashed the popular Chinese social media site Weibo, according to online technology and sports news sites in China.

A crowd of spectators gathered spontaneously in front of a big TV screen in Wangfujing, a famed shopping district in central Beijing, on Tuesday morning.

Sina Weibo, the massive social network that is similar to Twitter, found its servers temporarily overloaded, according to Chinese media.

Of the top 10 trending topics on the platform, five were dedicated to adoration for the 18-year-old champion.

«Gu Ailing is a genius young woman right?» was one trending topic, referencing her Chinese name.

«Dad was Harvard, Mom was Peking University, Stanford, Grandmother was an athlete. She's