You would think that, after putting the Eileen Gu question into perspective, my colleague Scott Pinsker covered everything that needed to be covered about an American-born skier who chose to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics under the red flag of Communist China. But then she opened her mouth, and now just about everyone has a distaste for her, including the Chinese.
Here’s all you need to know about Gu. She was born in San Francisco. Her mother had immigrated to the U.S. from China. She’s a competitive freestyle skier who went to Stanford University in Northern California. In 2019, right before the Wuhan flu took the world by storm, she switched her competitive allegiances from the USA to China. Not that the Olympics and the Wuhan virus are related, but it’s just a reminder that China sucks.
So far this year, she's won two silver medals for China — not what she hoped for. In 2022, in front of a “hometown” crowd in Beijing, Gu won two gold medals and a silver medal for her fellow commies. And according to Scott, she’s filthy rich from skiing:
Making $23 million per year as an “amateur athlete,” in a sport that pays $20,000 annually, while snubbing America to represent a communist country(!) ought to be an Olympic event, too: It requires so many illogical twists, turns, and mental backflips, it’d give Mary Lou Retton vertigo.
Eileen Gu isn’t the first American to take Chinese money: U.S. Navy sailor Jinchao Wei sold military information to China for the princely sum of $12,000 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In 2023, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao was convicted of selling American military secrets to China for less than $15,000.
In her own defense, Gu responded to a question about her performance on the slopes this week and committed a form of media suicide, which in Chinese is called “zì shā.”
My God, is it me or does Eileen Gu sound like the most annoying arrogant woman on planet Earth?
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) February 19, 2026
You can have her, China! pic.twitter.com/VrTjIFMF19
Clearly, within 1.5 seconds of treating everyone to her laugh, which on the Richter scale ranks up there with fingernails on a chalkboard, she’s alienated at least 50% of the people within earshot, and then there’s her humble brag. Check that. Did I say, “humble?” I should have said, there’s that abrasive, obnoxious, grating, arrogant, mean-spirited brag.
The reporter asked her how she put her two silver medals from this week into perspective. Her first response was that laugh, and then, “I’m the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think that’s an answer in and of itself.”
She added color to her answer with, “How do I say this? Winning. a. medal. at. the Olympics. is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder. Because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right? And so, the two medals, "lost" situation, to be quite frank with you, I think, is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take. I’m showcasing my best skiing. I’m doing things that quite literally have never been done before. And so, I think that is more than good enough.”
But it’s still second place, which means China came in second in those events. The men who run Communist China aren’t big fans of second place in these sorts of symbolic displays of power. It’s doubtful that President Xi Jinping will be inviting her to his crib to celebrate her Olympic performance.
She’s 22 years old with five Olympic medals – all for China – and barring injury, could have at least two more Olympic games in her future. I’m sure all her fans can’t wait.
Back in 2022, when the Beijing games ended, Gu caused a stir among Chinese fans when she used the Chinese social media app Weibo to tell her 6.7 million fans in her home country that she was leaving China. It was so heartbreaking, you could feel it. After her months-long commitment to Chinese residency, she was returning to that fake life of hers back in the United States, where she was born and where she actually lives.
Not one for sentiment, Gu posted simply, “Thank you China,” along with the Chinese flag, a heart emoji, and a collage of photos from her visit to China. She also created a post on Instagram that said, “Thank you China for the unforgettable few months & for the endless love.”
On the other hand, the country she actually has lived in for the balance of her life, and which has given her all of the opportunities she’s enjoyed, is the United States.
Vice President JD Vance took note when he said, “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 on Eileen Gu: I think that somebody who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place would want to compete with the US… I will root for American athletes and I think part of that is people who identify themselves… pic.twitter.com/DgY6sof7z6
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 17, 2026
That’s quite classy and nice, coming from one of the more likeable VPs America has ever had. But the rest of America isn’t so diplomatic.
Take, for instance, the words of Enes Kanter Freedom, a former NBA player who changed his name to “Freedom” when he became a naturalized American citizen who actually lives in the country he calls his own.
🚨 BREAKING: NBA legend Enes Kanter Freedom, a naturalized American citizen, just DESTROYED Eileen Gu, American-born woman who defected to the Chinese Olympic team
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 18, 2026
“She's a TRAITOR!”
“She chooses to play for a country responsible for the deaths of TENS KF MILLIONS of its own… pic.twitter.com/uMgM3VYsQI
Personality and allegiances aside, there is yet another reason not to be an Eileen Gu fan, and that is what she represents. John Daniel Davidson, writing for The Federalist, said Gu is part of something bigger. He said she’s the “poster child for the post-nationalist Olympics.”
Something about this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy is actively post-nationalist. We of course hear athletes talk about being part of an ‘Olympic family,’ or invoke gauzy notions of unity and coming together for the sake of sport. But these platitudes mask a deeper shift away from national loyalty and national identity at the Olympics, he wrote.
Davidson is on to something. Americans have shown they can be highly tolerant of someone’s look, or laugh, or even their arrogance. But most Americans still don’t take kindly to someone turning their back on the country when it counts. Especially when that person not only turns her back on America, but then falls into the embrace of Communist China – a regime that truly hates America and has shown a massive disregard for the welfare of the global environment and all of humanity. Do we need to be reminded of what that country inflicted on the rest of the world in 2020?
When Gu decided to wear the uniform of the Chicoms, she took on much more than she may have thought. Not only did she take the money and the image of being China’s top freestyle skier, but she adorned herself with the baggage of a country that still won’t allow its people to talk about Tiananmen Square, or the Chinese government’s mass detention of up to one million Uyghurs and other Turkish Muslims in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. She embraced a country that constantly tries to create civil unrest and divisiveness in America, that feeds corruption and is corrupt, and that serves as the primary source of America’s fentanyl crisis.
She represents a country with a deplorable human rights record. It’s the number-one polluter on the planet. And did I mention China has hundreds of nuclear-armed warheads aimed directly at the United States?
That’s the country Eileen Gu represents. It’s where she should live if it matters that much to her. Meanwhile, those of us who actually love America will keep on doing so, while detesting Gu for all that she represents.
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