Eileen Gu, the 18-year-old freestyle skier from California who chose to represent China at the Olympic Games in Beijing, won gold for a daring experimental trick jump on Tuesday.
Stuck in third place with one last jump to finish her event, Gu performed a bold Left Double 1620 with a safety grab, for the first time in her career, garnering a surplus of points and securing first place. Fans applauded her with Chinese flags.
“I was hoping that it wouldn’t have to come to that, but it did,” Gu told the New York Times. “Honestly, I’m really glad that it did, because I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to try it.”
Gu’s mother grew up in China and then emigrated to San Francisco, where she raised Gu in an affluent neighborhood.
While Gu is American, Chinese brands and media have promoted her extensively in advertisements and news. The Chinese internet erupted in praise and fanfare for Gu’s victory, with Sina Weibo, the social network comparable to Twitter, crashing for a short time as its servers overloaded, Chinese media say. Gu was the subject of five of the ten trending topics on the platform. Weibo is assumed to be closely censored and monitored by Chinese authorities.
“Freestyle ski star Gu Ailing a super idol among Chinese young people for representing true spirit of sport,” the headline of an article in Chinese news outlet Global Times read Thursday, referring to the athlete’s Chinese name, Reuters reported.
Gu’s placement in the front row among the Chinese athletic delegation at the opening ceremony, as well as her decision to eat dumplings in Beijing, have also generated a lot of positive attention on Chinese social media.
While Gu’s teammate, figure skater Zhu Yi, another U.S.-born athlete forfeited her U.S. citizenship in order to represent China in Beijing, it’s unclear whether Gu has also technically discarded her American citizenship, given that China does not allow dual-citizenship.
“Most British-Chinese keep their PRC passports, but they are very careful and scared of being caught because their (PRC) passports would be cut up… The dignity of the law compared to Winter Olympic gold, which is more precious?” a user called Tomson wrote on Weibo.
“Who cares whether she is a dual national or not!,” another user mynameisliuxiaohun wrote. “Regardless she is coming out to represent China, she is carrying the Chinese flag! The glory she gets is China’s, who else? Isn’t this good?”
While Gu and her mother have agreed to stay out of the geopolitical quagmire, the champion’s decision to switch sporting allegiances has earned her some backlash in the United States. Gu told the Times she wants to help facilitate better relations between the nations, while boosting China’s developing winter sports arena, but that is a difficult feat in what is an increasingly political charged conversation.
Given the venue in Beijing, the seat of government of the Chinese Communist Party, which has been perpetrated human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority, Hong Kong pro-democracy dissenters, and Tibetans, Gu’s allegiance has raised eyebrows in America.