Why did a top American athlete who claims to be socially conscious, who benefited tremendously from growing up in the United States, decide to play for a brutal totalitarian government with one of the worst human rights records on the planet? Why does a young woman who claims to be dedicated to female empowerment back a regime that forcibly sterilizes Uyghur Muslim women?
Why are so many American media outlets unwilling to put those questions to Gu, or even drive for a strong answer on whether she renounced her American citizenship to play for China? U.S. mainstream media has embraced the narrative of Gu as a brave iconoclast walking a tightrope between feuding superpowers, fending off unreasonable denouncement from a few cloddish and possibly racist American nationalists. It's as though she had left California to play for Canada, instead of for a hostile authoritarian superpower with a penchant for ethnic cleansing.
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Gu could quickly have taken a spot on the U.S. Olympic team — she was racking up one medal after another as an American competitor before she started entering events under the Chinese flag in 2019. On the other hand, as retired Winter X Games gold medalist Jen Hudak pointed out to the New York Post in early February, it’s doubtful Gu could have enjoyed the same sporting career if she grew up under the misogynist tyranny she now represents.
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“It is not my place to judge, but Eileen is from California, not from China, and her decision seems opportunistic,” Hudak stated. “She became the athlete she is because she grew up in the United States, where she had access to premier training grounds and coaching that, as a female, she might not have had in China.”
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Gu was born in San Francisco, California, in 2003. Her mother is a Chinese immigrant named Gu Yan, the daughter of a Chinese government official who moved to the United States roughly 30 years ago, worked as a ski instructor in the Lake Tahoe area, and raised Eileen as a single mom.
Eileen reportedly still lives with her mom and grandmother in San Francisco, yet there is little on the record about her American father, aside from occasional mentions in Chinese state media that describe him as a graduate of Harvard.
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