Eileen Gu was born and raised in San Francisco. Her mother is originally from China, coming to America as a college student and never moving home to China. Eileen’s father is an American. Eileen also lived about 25% of her time in China (summer vacations and holidays). She speaks fluent English and Chinese. Eileen was introduced to skiing at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. She was a member of Team USA during the 2018-2019 season. In 2019, she requested a “change of nation” status with the International Ski Federation with the goal of representing China in the 2022 Olympics. She successfully made the transition and China welcomed her with open arms.
At the age of 18, she represented China in the Beijing 2022 Olympics. So far, Gu has won two gold medals and one silver medal.
To say the least, this move to represent China has caused a lot of controversy. For starters, in 2018, China began a world-wide search for people with Chinese ancestry to compete for China. They did this because they were not winning many medals in the Olympics. China is reportedly paying Gu about 1.5 million dollars per year to represent China. There is also this long-standing standard of China not respecting dual-citizenship. But, all of a sudden, they are respecting it for this purpose. Finally, China is a communist country with a dictator that does not allow it’s citizens access to truthful information or allow citizens to criticize the government. This is still a country where people disappear when they speak out publicly.
Pro Argument: Gu says all the right things. She is very careful not to say anything against China or America. She just had a dream of competing for China in China in front of her Chinese grandmother at the Olympics. It’s not hard feelings on her part, saying “When I’m in the U.S., I’m American, but when I’m in China, I’m Chinese.” She also hopes “to help inspire millions of young people” in China and “to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations.” These seem like noble goals. She is an 18-year-old female who wants to encourage people to look beyond countries and nationalities and teams. She says that they are all just competitors out there trying to challenge the sport of extreme skiing.
Con Argument: Gu is an American. She was born in American and raised in America. She honed her craft on the Team USA Ski Team. Even if she did it for all the right reasons, she still turned her back on America. Yes, there are competitors out there, but they are representing a country. At the end of the competition, when the winner stands on that podium, they play the national anthem of the country she/he is representing. Gu added team 2 golds and 1 silver to China’s medal count. And, it’s not just some random country. This is our biggest rival on the world stage. They are a dictatorship, they control information, punish decenters, manipulate their currency, steel our technology, abuse gay and trans people… Gu makes it look like the two countries are on equal footing and it doesn’t matter which one you represent. She then plays along with their rules. By agreeing not to criticize their human rights issues, China comes out looking like the country next store. Hope the money and the fame is worth it Gu.
Joe’s Perspective: I know the right wants me to call her a traitor and the left wants me to praise her for her ability to see past countries and borders – love, love love. Truth is, I can see both sides. I know Gu is smart. She is scheduled to attend Stanford University in the near future. I believe she believes that her actions should be seen as an inspiration. However, I think at 18, she is just too young to understand or maybe care about the larger political issues that surround this decision. On the one hand, she is not a spy and this is not an act of treason. And, she does have heritage in China. On the other hand, she just handed China miles of contraband to peddle to their people. It’s just not a good look. My guess is someday when she is 30 or 40, she will realize the bigger picture and apologize like Jane Fonda did. I guess time will tell. How will she be treated by Americans? Will their be any repercussions? Will she renounce her US Citizenship? Will she become even more famous?
Your Turn: What are your thoughts about Eileen Gu and her decision to represent China in the Olympics?
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My thoughts about Eileen and her representing China in the 2022 Olympics is that I can see both sides of the story, however I feel she should stick to representing one country and one country only because of the issues that it could later cause such as China is a communist country. I also think that it wrong that China is paying her $1.5 million to represent them. With this story I can see why there’s so much controversy but one thing I do see is that she might really not understand everything as she is only 18 years old.
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I feel like that Eileen should be representing USA because she is getting paid $1.5 million dollars just to play for china. The olympics is not about getting paid it’s about the sport and the competition of said sport
I believe that she should be able to choose what country she wants to represent and that it’s a good thing that she can be a role model for oppressed women in China.
Nick, she’s representing China’s Communist Party and all of the oppression that the CCP does. The CCP recruited to strengthen their standing both domestically and internationally, and Gu knows this fully. Gu is doing this for money as well, but don’t be fooled by “I’m trying to do good” B.S. She did choose to support China against the U.S., and so she is by definition a traitor. As a U.S. citizen she is allowed to make this choice (note she wouldn’t be able to make this choice as a Chinese citizen), so the U.S. cannot punish her, but she should be vilified.
I think she should feel free and comfortable enough to make her own decision whether or not she wants to represent USA or whatever country she’s determined to and if she wanted to be someone to look forward to at the Olympics in China.
Eileen should be able to do what she wants with out being hated for it, in the end most of the Olympic competitors do it because they enjoy the sport.
I think that either way its a hard decision. If she competed with USA then she would feel like she would be betraying her parents but if she competes with China then she would be leaving the place she grew up in. I think that there was no right and wrong decision and she made the choice that best suited her.
I will never understand why she would compete for China. A country that is not kind to their citizens and abuses the environment. Their covid quarantine rules are horrific and cruel. I think she’s too young to really understand how lucky she is to live in the USA. If she’s making a ton of money she should pay the United States back for all of her training. Our infrastructure and u.s. citizen tax dollars enabled her success and she humiliated our country and naively humiliated her level of intelligence.
I will never understand why she would compete for China. A country that is not kind to their citizens and blantantly abuses the environment. Their covid quarantine rules are horrific and cruel. She’s too young to really understand how lucky she is to live in the USA. If she’s making a ton of money she should pay the United States back for all of her training. Our infrastructure and u.s. citizen tax dollars enabled her success and in return she humiliated our country on a world stage. If she represents China in the future and says something wrong is she aware of the fact that she will be escorted out of the games by Chinese officials never to be seen again only 2 spend her life in a remote and God forsaken prison camp.
I feel like she should be able to support china considering she is 50% Chinese and lived there for 25% of her life that’s like how some nba players play for us teams but go play for their country when the Olympics roll around
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That is fair and it is a well-reasoned argument.
The question isn’t whether or not she should be allowed to make the choice. She is allowed. The question is, “Is she a traitor?”, and the answer to this question is, “Yes, she’s a traitor.” The comparison to other players is weak, because in all of the other cases, the players playing for other nations didn’t make their home country’s team. So, it was their first choice to play for the U.S., but weren’t able to do so, so they played for another country for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. Clearly Gu would have made the U.S team, but she took the training and benefits provided by the U.S. and used them to help the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of the U.S.
She is a very talented skier and is a very dedicated person. She is a unifier. A person with a very positive attuidide when it comes to sports ans its a very good idea for her to represent china in the olympics .