Gu, Su to drive new frenzy in winter sports

Michael Lin, senior business director at Mailman, a Shanghai-headquartered global sports consultancy, said the performances of Gu and Su, "will expedite the already increased interest in winter sports across the nation" and they will likely stand as pioneers and idols for younger generations.

Mark Dreyer, author of Sporting Superpower, a book on China's sports industry, said: "Clearly, Eileen Gu has been a big story. I think she is definitely a celebrity and is being embraced by certain sections of China."

However, he said, the extent to which Gu could influence the next wave of children's interest in winter sports remains to be seen. This is due, in part, to her unusual upbringing, which most Chinese might not be able to identify with.

Simon Chadwick, a professor in Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School in France, said, "to a certain extent", there is already a winter sports frenzy in China.

"What Eileen Gu and Su Yiming have done is to probably bring alpine sports to a mass market, to make it more popular, not just among the affluent middle-class members, but across the population more generally," Chadwick said.

Historically, following sporting success at the elite level, there is likely to be a boom in activity, such as huge bicycle sales in Britain after Team GB performed well in cycling at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. Chadwick believes this will also be the case in China, and predicted a boom in alpine sports equipment sales.

The challenge for China is ensuring this is not just "a one-off bullet", but sustainable growth in the sector.

Government strategy will be important to keeping young people in China engaged in winter sports, in particular alpine events. "When young people are engaged with a sport, they are less likely to change, and their loyalty to that sport endures throughout their life," he said.