Eileen Gu, also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing, is a freestyle skier, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and model. She has competed for China in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events since 2019. Gu competed for the United States at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup.
Eileen Gu: Why did compete for china| Model| Stanford
Why did compete for China:
Freestyle skier Eileen Gu won a second gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Friday, further cementing her position as a sporting hero in China, the country she represents. In the U.S., where the 18-year-old was born, opinions are considerably more mixed.
Gu came first in the freeski halfpipe competition, bringing her total haul to three Olympic medals — two gold and one silver.
“Winning the Olympics and getting into Stanford have been two of my biggest dreams in my life. Now I’ve achieved both,” said Gu at a press conference on Friday. The teenager will attend the university from this fall.
Model:
Meanwhile on Twitter, some American users are circulating photoshopped images of Gu next to Chinese President Xi Jinping or skiing over piles of dollars, with captions like “love China for money.” Fox News host Will Cain called her decision to compete for China rather than the U.S. “shameful” and “ungrateful.”
“You’ve got to pick a side because you’re either American or you’re Chinese, and they are two very different countries,” said Nikki Haley, who was the Trump administration’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview with Real Clear Politics.
Stanford:
“Every athlete needs to know when they put their flag on, you’re standing for freedom or you’re standing for human rights abuses. There is no in-between.”
She has resolutely avoided discussing controversial subjects, and her public appearances in the lead-up to the Olympics largely confined to competitions as well as sponsored photos and videos. If people don’t like her, it is “their loss,” she has said.
The split between Chinese and U.S. perceptions of the skier reflects a broader divide in how the games have generally been received by China and Western nations.
