Eileen Gu, world’s greatest free skier chooses China over the USA: agreement, outrage, indifference?

LMFAO! Who gives a fvck? So she decided to represent the country that her family is from in a sport you only hear about during the winter olympics. Once the Winter Olympics are over we wont care until the next one.

Why are boomers reviving this thread after it's run its course? I mean, her winning golds was a given. At this point, this thread is just a conduit for nationalist Americans to seethe over her first Olympic gold.

greg kirby wrote:

Why are boomers reviving this thread after it's run its course? I mean, her winning golds was a given. At this point, this thread is just a conduit for nationalist Americans to seethe over her first Olympic gold.

I resent this remark. I am Gen-X. And now triggered.

It's way, way more than 10%. Almost every news outlet is running a story on her because she's the hot topic right now. It's all pure political hate and it's disgusting to read. A teenage girl made a decision to represent a country that welcomed her with open arms after her white American father left her and her mother, and she and her grandma feared for their lives in San Francisco because of an unhinged racist. That's not even mentioning the rabid anti-China hate permeating this country. People who look vaguely Chinese are, at best, bullied throughout childhood and at worst attacked and killed. My friend with Korean parents (not even Chinese!) had to live through this and his grandparents are afraid to leave the house to buy groceries.

Mondo Duplantis had the exact same reasoning. He was a shy, little kid and didn't fit in, and the Swedish athletics team welcomed him with open arms.

All these American news outlets completely miss the point and attach some world-shaking political stigma to her life when all it comes down to is the fact that America treats Asian-Americans like sh*t and she felt more welcomed and loved by her Chinese side of the family. Her absent white American father is a perfect microcosm for the larger issue.

As someone who looks vaguely Chinese but am actually a myriad of ethnicities, I concur. That said, despite the racism, my American experience has been mostly positive so I wouldn't switch allegiance to my mother's country of birth.

Gu seems like a nice woman, albeit a little naive as to what China is capable of. I'm thinking of several high-profile women going " missing," including the tennis player.

Nonetheless, I highly suspect she does have dual citizenship, despite information that states you can't have it in China past 18. This I'm curious about, even if it's not really my business.

She's very hot. Maybe she'll go the Lindsey Vonn route to fame.

NotPC wrote:

She's very hot. Maybe she'll go the Lindsey Vonn route to fame.

Dating Tiger Woods and looking worn out in her late 30s? Yikes. Vonn also isn't very good at broadcasting, although I can appreciate her POV as a former elite skier.

I like Ryan Cochran-Siegle's story better. Neck surgery one year ago, silver medalist today. But I guess he doesn't have boobs so ...

Crystal Palace Fan wrote:

Gu seems like a nice woman, albeit a little naive as to what China is capable of.

.

Is China capable of fabricating a war based on Weapons of Mass destruction . American bodies are still lying around the Middle East on a war based on Oil control . The Clinton's have made more people disappear than the China government .

First, Gu's performance in the final was epic.  1.3 billion Chinese were ready to rip her to shreds if she failed to win gold.  And that is what is so great about Gu competing for China.  The biggest star for China in the winter games, the "snow princess", is from the US and is only half Chinese.  She is, possibly unintentionally, throwing cold water over the growing ultra nationalism in China.  And on the American side, Gu has shown the US that our rabid nationalism is also BS.  Gu wanted to compete for China in order to open up winter sports to millions of Chinese girls.  This was not so that the Chinese could dominate the half pipe but so that they could join a global community of skiers and snowboarders who come together to enjoy their sport and support each other and in the end really care more about their sport than they do about the politics in their country.

Greg, if you read the WaPo article you’ll see she also getting a lot of love in the mainstream media and NBC has been very loathe to wade into any contentious issues.   BTW, I know her (my daughters were friendly with her growing up) and the story your peddling about her father is total bs.   You make a lot of good points, but don’t lie about something you know nothing about.

Wise Old Man wrote:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/01/31/eileen-gu-china-freestyle-skiing-beijing-olympics/

I was shocked when she elected to represent China, but I realize I see things through a narrow lens. In China she’s a national hero and in the USA she’s simply the best at a niche sport. She’s incredibly talented in many domains. In HS she was a top local runner with no focus on it at all. She was always off skiing.

Who cares? It’s her life, she can do what she wants.

I think in the end your post is spot on.  

I know as much as the next person does: 1) That she actively avoids questions about her American father and 2) that he isn't in the picture. If you have more to share, then please enlighten all of us, but to say that a dichotomy as strong as an absent American father versus a Chinese mother and family who embraced her had no sway in her decision is naïve.

What could be more American than being raised by a single mother after the father skips town?

On correction. I'm guessing that your assumption that she would be ripped to shreds is based on the alleged hate directed towards Zhu Yi, another American-born Chinese who similarly chose to represent China, failing to medal in figure skating.

Gu herself has confirmed that vast majority of the Chinese social media reaction is positive and supportive and that all of the articles alleging hate being thrown at Zhu use cherry-picked comments; who would've thought that MSM would try to twist the narrative to foment a larger China-US divide in the public subconscious? Apparently most of the anger was directed at her coaches and administration for altering her routine, rather than her.

Vineyard Vines wrote:

What could be more American than being raised by a single mother after the father skips town?

Almost made me spit out my drink. That's a good one.

She or her mom can or will tell her origin story if they want, but you are implying you know it and you vouch in all sorts of negative imagery based on no knowledge of the situation.   Don’t be what you accuse others of being, ignorant liars….

Seems like the sort of chick who thinks she's much hotter than she really is. Instagram generation.

Also Greg, Eileen grew up in SF where over 35% of the population is Asian and she grew up in a very wealthy, privileged and safe environment.   My daughters are similarly BIPOC from the same neighborhood.  I’m not saying issues don’t exist, but these young women all grew up in a privileged bubble and not a cauldron of racist hate.   Your hyperbole is undermining your arguments.