Born in San Francisco, USA, but competing for China at the Beijing Winter Olympics, skier Eileen Gu won the gold medal in the women’s big air freestyle on Monday (7).
Gu, who will participate in two more freestyle skiing contests (halfpipe and slopestyle) in the Chinese capital, draws attention both for his talent and for the delicate position in which he finds himself.
Daughter of a Chinese mother and an American father, the 18-year-old athlete has ties to the two biggest rivals in world geopolitics today, and represents China in an event diplomatically boycotted by the United States due to human rights violations practiced by the Chinese dictatorship in Xinjiang. The athlete does not comment on the matter.
In addition to being born in the United States, Gu was raised in the country and still lives in San Francisco with her mother and grandmother. She was visiting Beijing on summer vacation and speaks Mandarin without an accent, but her documentation situation is a mystery: the Asian country does not allow dual citizenship, which indicates that she would have had to renounce her US citizenship.
However, it is said that China would have made exceptions to improve its performance on the medal table, as several athletes from other countries are competing under the red flag with yellow stars in Beijing.
When he announced on Instagram in 2019 that he would be competing for China rather than the United States, Gu wrote that it was an “incredibly difficult decision.”
“I am proud of my ancestry and equally proud of my American upbringing. The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mother was born, during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, is a unique opportunity to help promote the sport I love,” she claimed.
The decision was not well received in the West, where Fox News called her “America’s ungrateful daughter”. “Eileen Gu is a traitor to America in every sense of the word,” wrote one British Twitter user. “Stay in China and hand over your passport,” she added.
In China, where she has several sponsors and almost 2 million followers on the social network Weibo, Gu is a celebrity, but it is suspected that this affection is only related to the fact that she is a winner. Figure skater Zhu Yi, another American representing China at Beijing 2022, was criticized for her hesitant Mandarin and ridiculed on the Chinese internet after finishing last in her race.
Calling herself “Chinese when I’m in China, and American when I’m in the United States”, Gu prefers to remain oblivious to these issues. “Through skiing, I hope to bring people together, promote common understanding, create communication and forge friendships between nations. If I can help inspire a young woman to break boundaries, my wishes will come true,” she declared on Instagram.
Judging by the heightened moods, there is no prospect of that, but bringing the two biggest geopolitical rivals of the 21st century together would be the most unbelievable maneuver of Eileen Gu’s career.
#Born #USA #competing #China #ski #champion #turned #geopolitical #centerpiece