Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu is complaining that she feels like a “punching bag” for those who criticize her for turning her back on the USA and choosing to compete for China at the Winter Games in Milan, Italy.
Gu reacted on Thursday to Vice President JD Vance, who said he hoped that US-born athletes would “want to compete with the United States of America.”
Despite that, Vance did not mention her by name, the turncoat Olympian told reporters, “I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” according to the New York Post.
The five-time Olympic medalist then agreed that she feels like a “punching bag.”
“I do,” she said. “So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So, it’s not really about what they think it’s about.”
She added, “And also, because I win. Like if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
Gu has been working to pump up her victim status this month. Recently, she claimed she was “assaulted” and “robbed” while attending Stanford University in California back in 2022. She also now claims that she faced “hate” that same year when she announced she was headed to China for the 2022 games in Beijing.
The Olympian has never mentioned these attacks before since arriving on the international stage in 2022. And media inquiries made of Stanford have not exactly substantiated her claims.
While Gu often criticizes the U.S., she never says an unkind word about China, the land of her mother’s birth.
Most recently, she refused to comment on China’s decades of oppressing, imprisoning, and enslaving its Uyghur minority population. Indeed, this week, Gu claimed it was a political matter, and the Uyghur genocide is “not her business.”
“I’m not an expert on this. I haven’t done the research. I don’t think it’s my business. I’m not going to make big claims on my social media,” she said when asked for her reaction to China’s genocidal actions.
Yet she has no problem attacking U.S. President Donald Trump. Recently, she ripped President Donald Trump’s observations about Team USA freestyle skier Hunter Hess, after Hess said it was “a little hard” for him to “wear Team USA gear.” Hess also stated there is “a lot going on” in the United States, which he wasn’t “the biggest fan of.”
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