JD Vance has taken a thinly-veiled dig at US-born freestyle skier Eileen Gu as she competes for China rather than America at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
The Vice President was asked on Fox News Tuesday whether Gu’s ‘status’ should be changed amid criticism over her decision to compete for a regime infamous for its human rights abuses and open hostility toward the US.
Vance declined to comment but said that he would not be supporting Gu, who was born and raised in San Francisco – the daughter of a first-generation Chinese immigrant mother and an American father.
‘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 they would want to compete with the United States of America,’ the Vice President said.
‘So, I will root for American athletes and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That’s who I am rooting for this Olympics.’
Gu claimed her fifth career medal Monday night in Livigno, taking silver in the Big Air event to the delight of her adoring Chinese fans, who call her ‘the Snow Princess.’
The medal carried greater weight as it was won on Chinese New Year, a coincidence celebrated widely across Beijing’s state media.
That followed another silver Gu secured on February 9 in the Slopestyle final, where she was narrowly pipped for gold by Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud.
Eileen Gu attends Victoria’s Secret’s celebration of The Tour ’23 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 06, 2023 in New York City (left) and at the tenth Breakthrough Prize ceremony held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on April 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California
JD Vance was asked on Tuesday about whether US-born Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu’s ‘status’ should be reviewed
Silver medalist Eileen Gu Ailing of Team China celebrates after competing in the Women’s Freeski Big Air Final on day ten of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Livigno Snow Park on February 16
The 22-year-old Stanford University student is now the most decorated female freestyle skier in Olympic history.
But Gu has been branded ‘shameful’ by conservative commentators for representing China – seen as a ‘sports-washing’ coup for America’s Communist adversary.
China has leveraged Gu’s glamorous, Western-educated image to deflect international condemnation over the repression of Uyghur Muslims and the dismantling of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.
Gu has been physically attacked on her college campus, received death threats and is relentlessly pressed by the media on geopolitics.
‘Things don’t get easier,’ she told The Athletic last week. ‘You just get stronger.’
She added: ‘It’s hard. I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever.’
Gu is the heavy favorite in her signature event, the Freeski Halfpipe, with qualifying Thursday and the final Saturday.
