Eileen Gu has become the media's "It Girl" of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy. And not because she's a pretty girl and an athlete who excels at her sport of freestyle skiing – and she is both of those things – but because she opted to compete for China and not her home country of the United States. Something the media has swept under the rug even as it cheers on U.S. Olympians who are using their platforms on the world stage to trash their country.
Gu's mother is Yan Gu, who emigrated to the U.S. from China sometime in the 1980s; Eileen Gu's father is not named publicly, but she was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and currently attends Stanford University.
Eileen Gu has been competing for her mother's home country since 2019. She made the announcement about competing for China on her Instagram page, saying in a post that she hoped "to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations."
I have decided to compete for China in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics. This was an incredibly tough decision for me to make. I am extremely thankful for U.S. Ski & Snowboard ( @usfreeskiteam ) and the Chinese Ski Association for having the vision and belief in me to make my dreams come true. I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings. The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love. Through skiing, I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations. If I can help to inspire one young girl to break a boundary, my wishes will have come true.
Vice President JD Vance appeared Wednesday on the Fox News show “The Story” with host Martha MacCallum, who asked Vance about Gu competing for China. He responded that he “has no idea what her status should be, that’s ultimately up to the Olympics Committee" and emphasized that he's "going to root for American athletes."
“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,” he 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.”
In other words, there's not a snowball's chance in the underworld that he's going to be cheering for communist China to rack up the medals.
VP Vance Speaking to U.S. Team in Milan, Reminds Them of What's Truly Important at Winter Olympics
This is the second time Vance – who, along with his family, attended the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Games – has weighed in on American Olympians who seem less than grateful to be representing the Stars and Stripes. "You're there to play a sport, and you're there to represent your country and hopefully win a medal," he said last week. "You're not there to pop off about politics."
One such athlete, figure skater Amber Glenn, has used her position on Team USA to bash the Trump administration, saying the last year had been a "hard time" for her and members of the LGBT community. She followed that up with: "They hate to see two woke b----es winning," Glenn wrote. "If ‘Woke’ means people who use their platforms to advocate for marginalized communities in the country that they are actively representing …… Then yeah sure?"
Glenn botched her short program Tuesday and is currently in 13th place going into the finals of the women's figure skating event.
Eileen Gu has won two silver medals for China during these Games, and has one additional opportunity to medal in the women's halfpipe event.
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