Eileen Gu is among the most decorated female freestyle skiers of all time with two gold and three silver medals at the Winter Olympics, including two silver at the ongoing Milano-Cortina Games in Italy.
Skiing star Eileen Gu is among those making heads turn at the ongoing Winter Olympics in Italy. The 22-year-old, competing in her second Winter Games, has already won a pair of medals – silver in Women’s Freeski Big Air as well as in the Slopestyle events. And this Sunday, Gu could add a third, possibly gold, when she competes at the Halfpipe event.
Why then is Gu is in the spotlight in the Milano-Cortina Games for negative reasons despite being one of the greatest female freestyle skiers ever? She had after all won two gold medals along with a silver at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne as well as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and also has gold medals at the Freestyle World Ski Championships as well as Winter X Games.
How’s Eileen Gu’s career-choices have been met with anger in the US
Gu finds herself at the centre of a heated debate in the United States due to her nationality. Though she was born and brought up in the US, specifically San Francisco in California, Gu has been representing China since 2019.
What many an American, particularly the conservative-leaning ones, finds offensive is the fact that Gu not only turned her back on the country that had raised her and helped her take her baby steps in elite sport, but that she chose to represent a nation with one of the worst human rights records in the world.
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Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom went to the extent of labeling her a “traitor” who represents a regime that is “literally running a concentration camp”.
“I’m just going to say it, she’s a traitor. She was born in America. She was raised in America, lives in America, and chooses to compete against her own country for, literally, the worst human rights abuser on the planet, China. She built her fame in a free country, and then chooses to represent an authoritarian regime,” Freedom told Fox News.
“She chose to play for a country that is literally responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of its own people, and literally running a concentration camp while we’re talking,” he added.
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. pic.twitter.com/Qo7LBigrNa
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) February 17, 2026
Vice-president JD Vance, who has seen as a strong Republican candidate for 2028 after Donald Trump second term at the White House comes to an end, was a lot more measured in his assessment of Gu’s citizenship compared to Freedom.
“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,” he added.
It is, however, highly unlikely that Gu will be letting the heated discussion around her nationality and the traitor accusations affect her training as she sets her sights on gold this Sunday.
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