Eileen Gu citizenship questions follow Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics gold medal win

Gu’s win for China in Tuesday’s big air event secured the country’s third gold medal in these Olympics — briefly putting the country atop the gold-medal count — and came before the US has won any golds.

Gu was a slight underdog to French phenom Tess Ledeux in her Beijing Olympics debut, but won on the third and final run by nailing a trick she had never done before in competition. It featured four-and-a-half horizontal rotations and two flips.

On her final run, Ledeux couldn’t surpass Gu’s feat, and Gu finished with an overall score of 188.25 to Ledeux’s 187.50. Gu grinned and covered her mouth in shock as she watched her score post.

Hundreds of Chinese spectators erupted in cheers at Gu’s victory, some brandishing red and gold placards that read, “Gu Ailing, add oil” — a Chinese phrase of encouragement. Gu Ailing is her Chinese name.

The 18-year-old Gu’s unexpected win swept Chinese social media. On Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, six out of the top 10 trending topics were about her. Hashtags included “Gu Ailing takes on the world’s most difficult jump,” and “Gu Ailing Gold Medal.” Memes and moments of her victory flooded Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Gu was still coming back to earth when she faced questions in a post-event news conference about her citizenship status. Western reporters asked several versions of the question but Gu deflected each one.

Olympians must be citizens of the nations in which they compete, and China’s policy is not to allow dual citizenship. Yet Gu hasn’t made clear whether she has relinquished her US passport.

On Tuesday, she again emphasised that she considers herself Chinese when she’s in China, where she has spent nearly every summer of her life, and American when she’s in the US.

“I don’t feel as though I’m, you know, taking advantage of [China or the US] because both have actually been incredibly supportive of me and continue to be supportive of me,” she said.

“Because they understand that my mission is to use sport as a force for unity, to use it as a form to foster interconnection between countries, and not use it as a divisive force. So that benefits everyone, and if you disagree with that then I feel like that’s someone else’s problem.”

Gu’s decision to compete for China, little-noticed when she made it a few years ago, has spurred controversy in recent days, particularly in the US, where she was born and still lives with her mother and grandmother in San Francisco. Some Americans say she is a product of US ski-area infrastructure and instruction, and that her switch to China was motivated in part by gaining access to its vast commercial market.

The ambiguity around Gu’s nationality raises questions about whether Beijing has bent the rules for a top athlete, and whether her star power among some Chinese brands and more nationalistic supporters might suffer if it emerges that she hadn’t given up her US citizenship.

In earlier interviews, Gu had explained her decision to switch national affiliations by saying she felt she could make a greater impact in China than in the US, which she felt had no shortage of role models for young people.

Yet these Games — and Gu’s sudden starting role in them — arrived at a time of escalating tensions between China and the US, which is carrying out a diplomatic boycott over what it describes as China’s human-rights abuses particularly in its Xinjiang region. Beijing has defended its treatment of Uyghur Muslims there as an effort to combat extremism.

On Tuesday, Gu positioned herself as a unifier of cultures, evading questions about her citizenship status or responding as though they were critiques of her or her mission.

“If other people don’t really believe that that’s where I’m coming from, then that just reflects that they do not have the empathy to empathise with a good heart — perhaps because they don’t share the same kind of morals that I do,” she said.

“And in that sense, I’m not going to waste my time trying to placate people who are, one, uneducated, and two, probably are never going to experience the kind of joy and gratitude and, just, love that I have the great fortune to experience on a daily basis,” she continued.

“If people don’t like me, then that’s their loss. They’re never going to win the Olympics.”

Gu has said she wanted to inspire girls to take up skiing because it has brought her joy and taught her physical and mental toughness.

On Tuesday, Gu also sidestepped questions about the wellbeing of Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis player at the centre of a global firestorm after an allegation of sexual assault against a retired high-level Chinese official appeared on her social-media account in November.

Peng, who along with Olympic officials has since tried to deflect attention from her accusations, was in the audience watching Tuesday’s big air final. Earlier this week, Gu was the only athlete Peng mentioned by name in an interview with French sports publication L’Equipe, referring to her as “our Chinese champion, Eileen Gu, who I like a lot.”

At Tuesday’s post-event news conference, Gu’s interactions with some foreign journalists contrasted with those with their Chinese counterparts. Gu flitted between English and Chinese, which she spoke with a Beijinger’s accent, and said she was “fluent culturally in both.”

One Chinese journalist called Gu a “Beijing girl” and asked about her favourite local cuisine.

“I have eaten a lot of pork and chive dumplings the last few days and I really look forward to trying some Peking duck,” she said in Mandarin.

Gu, a California native who competed as an American before switching national affiliations in 2019, is competing in her first-ever Olympics, but she’s already a star in China.

A fashion model, Gu boasts a giant stable of sponsors — including Red Bull and the Bank of China – and graces countless advertisements on Chinese television.

She also represents an unprecedented three-event medal threat for China in the Winter Olympics, in which the nation has traditionally lagged behind North American and European winter-sports powers. She’s set to compete in Monday’s slopestyle event and the Feb. 18 halfpipe competition, in which she hasn’t lost an international competition this season.

“She used her action to demonstrate that confident Chinese people are the most beautiful!” a commentator on China’s state broadcaster proclaimed as Gu stepped on the top spot on the podium.

Gu’s debut at the Games on Tuesday was the event of the day, with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in attendance, along with Bing Dwen Dwen, the wildly popular panda mascot.

In the big air event, freestyle skiers launch off a giant ramp, perform tricks and are judged on them. Each skier takes three jumps, and the winner is the one with the highest total judges’ score of her two best different jumps, added together.

– The Wall Street Journal