China's 18-year-old freestyle skier Gu Ailing Eileen not only won the gold medal of the women's free ski big air final at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games but has become very popular with sales of products related to her, including her garage figure kits, surging as many parents in China want to buy one to encourage their children. 

After Gu won the gold on Tuesday, the garage kits which were designed based on Gu’s images and printed with her signature, were sold out in minutes on Migu online store, the sole agent of the garage kits.  



The Global Times found on the Migu online store on Thursday that there were four types of garage kits of Gu – images of her playing with her cat, skiing, sitting, and wearing traditional Chinese qipao with a lantern in her hand. The price of one set of two garage kits is 259 yuan（$41） but the earliest time to deliver the products is in May as the customer service said they have received too many orders in recent days. 

The portable power bank and mask with Gu’s signature printed on it are also sold out currently and people who want to buy them need to wait for more than two weeks.

On Xianyu, Alibaba's second-hand goods exchange platform, the garage kits of Gu are being sold between 400 yuan and 500 yuan. 

Some parents also joined in the mania of Gu and bought the garage kits to encourage their children to learn from the new icon. 

Recently, Gu's gold medal inspired Chinese netizens on Sina Weibo. Discussions about her exploded with over 670 million views and millions of comments about an hour after her historic victory.

Global Times