Olympic freeskier Eileen Gu has responded after vice-president JD Vance appeared to criticise her choice to represent China on the international stage instead of the United States.
With five medals, the 22-year-old Gu is the most decorated female freeskier in Olympic history. She won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Beijing Games and has claimed two silvers at the Milano Cortina Games, with one more medal event set for Saturday in the halfpipe.
Gu was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. In 2019, she requested a switch to compete for China instead of the US, a decision that has turned her into a lightning rod.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Vance suggested that American-born athletes should represent the US in international competition.
“I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said. “So, I’m going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That’s who I’m rooting for this Olympics.”
Asked specifically about Gu, Vance said he had “no idea what her status should be” and that it “was up to the Olympic committee”.
When asked about Vance’s comments after a qualifying run on Thursday, Gu said, per USA Today: “I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet.”
She said she wasn’t offended by Vance’s comments and agreed with a suggestion that she had become a “punching bag” for US political debate.
“So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So it’s not really about what they think it’s about.
“And also, because I win. Like if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
Vance led the US delegation at these Olympics, appearing at several events and attending the opening ceremony on 6 February in Milan, where he was met with boos in the San Siro stadium.
Earlier in the Games, Gu defended American freeskier Hunter Hess after he expressed ambivalence over representing the US – comments that were attacked by Donald Trump in a social media post that called Hess a ‘real Loser’.
“As someone who’s been caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” she said then.
Ahead of these Olympics, Gu told Time magazine that “the US already has the representation,” and “I like building my own pond.” In 2022, she said she felt “just as American as I am Chinese”.
The Olympic charter says “a national of two or more countries at the same time may represent either one of them”. Gu has declined to publicly share her citizenship status, and China does not permit dual citizenship.
More than 15 American-born athletes have won medals for the US at these Games competing for other countries. On the other side, at least 13 foreign-born athletes have medaled competing for Team USA.
Gu won gold in the halfpipe at Beijing 2022 and is a favorite to medal again.
“I have said, I do what I do because I want to inspire the next generation of young women. I’ve said this since I was 10. No one was paying me when I was 10. No country wanted me to ski for them when I was 10. I’ve had the same principle since I was literally prepubescent. And so if people don’t believe me, at a certain point, that’s just on them,” she said Thursday (per Australia’s ABC Sport).
“I can’t convince you. I have all the evidence. If you just close your eyes, what am I going to do about that? So I’m not bothered by it … I just wish that people would adopt the Olympic spirit more. That’s what this contest is about. It’s about bringing people together. It’s about using sport as a spirit of communication. And if they want to focus on the wrong things, they just have a sad little life.”
