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Livigno: Chinese megastar Eileen Gu says she feels like a political target of the American right wing because they “hate China” – and not necessarily because they wish she was competing for the US at the Winter Olympics.
Gu’s contentious decision to represent China, despite being born and raised in California, has become a huge conservative talking point following her success at Milano Cortina 2026, where she is on track to podium in all three of her events for the second Games in a row.
The 22-year-old has snared silver medals in the slopestyle and big air. She is poised for another medal in the halfpipe after qualifying for Sunday’s final (5.30am AEDT) with the fifth-highest score. Having previously won gold and two silvers at Beijing in 2022, Gu is the most decorated athlete in women’s freestyle skiing.
Born to a Chinese mother and American father, Gu is one of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, partly because her switch from the US to China in 2019 – a move she said was intended to “inspire millions of young people” in China – has helped unlock millions of dollars in endorsement deals from Chinese companies.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week Gu and Zhu Yi, an American-born figure skater who also competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025 for “striving for excellent results in qualifying” for Milano Cortina 2026.
Though athletes with dual nationalities are commonplace, Gu’s situation has become a flashpoint because she has sided with the US’s biggest strategic rival.
Eileen Gu.Credit: Getty Images
“I’m going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans,” US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News this week, levelling tempered criticism at Gu.
Though his comments were measured, the fact he was asked about her at all shows how much she has penetrated right-wing discourse.
Gu told reporters in Livigno she was not distracted nor offended by Vance’s comments, but responded facetiously when it was put to her that Vance had suggested she picked the wrong flag to compete under.
“I’m flattered,” Gu said. “Thanks, JD. That’s sweet.”
Others on the MAGA right have been far more vitriolic towards her, such as Republican congressman Andy Ogles, who posted on X: “Eileen Gu is a US-born skier who is working for Communist China, a regime that wants to destroy our country. There must be consequences for those who betray the United States and support our adversaries.”
Meanwhile, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, a long-time China critic, has described her as a “traitor” and accused her of “disappearing” whenever the topic of human rights comes up.
Asked if she felt like a punching bag for a certain strand of US politics, Gu said: “I do.”
“So many athletes compete for a different country, including in this field. So many. People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity and they just hate China.
Eileen Gu soars during the women’s freeski halfpipe qualifications on Thursday.Credit: AP
“And also because I win. If I wasn’t doing well, people probably wouldn’t care as much.
“There’s a saying in Chinese: you can’t wake someone who’s pretending to be asleep. Which just means, like, if someone is so convicted in their beliefs … I will never be able to justify or explain myself [to them].
“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 speak for them when I was 10. I have had the same principles since I was literally prepubescent.
“If people don’t believe me, at a certain point, that’s just on them.”
Gu’s status as a political lightning rod has come at the cost of her physical safety as she revealed last week, that she was assaulted on campus last year at Stanford University, where she studies, because she opted to compete for China.
She went on to list several athletes at the Winter Olympics who were also competing for countries that are different to the ones where they were born or where they grew up – not to say that people should “hate on them” too, but to illustrate how they were not receiving the same treatment.
“The problem is not about what people think it’s about,” she said.
“I just wish that people would adopt the Olympic spirit more. It’s about bringing people together. It’s about using sport as a spirit of communication. And if they want to focus on their own things, like, they just have a sad little life. I don’t know what to say.”
The Winter Olympic Games is broadcast on the Nine Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.
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