Opinion | Eileen Gu sees China preparing for the twenty-second century, while the USA remains glued to the twentieth
By J.B.Browne
There are two types of Olympic "moment" — sporting prowess and political event. From Usain Bolt to the Black Power salute, the Olympics is the largest and most complex sporting event globally ripe for legend-making and controversy.
But something weird happened this week when Chinese sensation Eileen Gu, 18, started her third and final jump in the Women's big air freestyle at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Trailing France's Tess Ledeux and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, she dropped a career-first double cork left-turn 1620, catapulting into the Gold position.
An Olympic legend was born, but the political controversy that dogged her after through the dregs of Western media has been bitter and explosive. Despite the IOC insisting that the Olympics are 'politically neutral,' since World War II, the Olympics have taken on greater political significance as participation symbolized political recognition and legitimacy.
But Gu, who was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother but raised by her mother visiting China every year when she was a child, chose to represent China in 2019.
That's a problem. The Anglo-American media response to her winning gold last week and now another silver in the Women's slopestyle has been nothing short of a jacked-up, hyper-nationalistic freakout. (The latest win picture is Gu draped in the Chinese flag, which will send some shirt buttons popping.)
One CNN article sounded like an overt threat — its first line, "the face of China's sporting dreams is undeniably American," quickly mutated into a barrel-chested puff piece about American exceptionalism and Gu's traitorhood. The overt undertones in that particular piece were that if China surpasses the US at the end of the Winter Olympics, it's tiny teen Eileen's fault. Sure.
Another report by "progressive online magazine" Slate dips into virulent masculinity in their official "Olympic Jerk Watch" feature (seriously), written no less by a white jerk more than twice Gu's age. Why the hate? Because she chose to compete for China, which specializes in human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale, right?
"Did she really need to ski under the flag of an autocratic regime?" stained crusty shirt guy writes, screaming, fingers in ears. Bruh, Western wars have killed four million Muslims since 1990; why do you pretend to care about more of them? Does every American athlete support the millions killed and displaced in the illegal invasion of Iraq? Hey, Michael Phelps, screw you, jerk. Did you really need to swim under the flag of a murderous plutocratic regime? Why did you implicitly support Operation Condor by saying nothing and flying the flag of the world's most extensive genocidal regime when you won all those golds? Hey, I'm talking to you.
Here's an observation.
Gu is very American about her decision to compete for China. And she's making BANK by doing so with multiple sponsors, including the Bank of China. What other "American values" are more revered than amassing personal wealth under the auspices of the American Dream? That's what all the wars, sanctions, and invasions are about, no? (shhh, profit, it's a secret).
But there's more to Gu than flagrant avarice. At 18-years old, her resume is already threateningly impressive. On top of being a professional skier, she also moonlights as a professional supermodel, and she's enrolling at Stanford this fall. She's also proficient at piano, and well, what have I done with my life. In short, she's a sponsor's dream since she can successfully straddle East and West regarding marketing clout. But the point is her unique mix of heritage, talent, and exposure is stratospheric in China, where her youth and influence will go furthest.
Athletes get paid a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars they generate for corporations with the Olympics, so there's that, or maybe it's because she loves China better considering her history of being on the receiving end of racist abuse in her native San Francisco compared to how much her Chinese fan base has embraced her.
People also forget that an athlete with dual citizenship can represent their chosen country in the Olympics. They are not obligated to be loyal to whatever place claims they should be. True, China has strict dual citizenship rules and has made an exception with Gu (for now). But I wouldn't be surprised if she renounced her US citizenship entirely in the coming months.
Most would like to believe that Americans who renounce their citizenship do so because they want to extricate themselves from the American tax system. But given her well-documented personal experiences of systemic racism in San Francisco, maybe she's opposed to the US's constant demonization of China and efforts to destabilize the government and its people. Perhaps her experiences of China as a child, language fluency, and family have helped shape her worldview.
Maybe she doesn't want to compete for a country carrying out regime change operations and starving people through economic sanctions, causing malnutrition, death, chaos, and destruction all over the world. Maybe she sees China preparing for the twenty-second century while the USA remains glued to the twentieth. Maybe her golden win is giving back to a community that appreciates what she offers, savoring said inspiration. Not only is she already established as a world-class athlete, but she seems kind and well-intentioned too.
But after the Olympics, after competing and winning for China, after becoming famous, after enrolling at Stanford, will she be walking into an atmosphere of fear and blame amid US-China tensions? Will she be accused of being a spy?
Will the relentless lies by Western politicians and corporate media have a greater perspective of things that are greater than themselves? Time will tell.
One more event to go — freeski halfpipe;
Come on, Eileen.
As he would refer himself, J.B. Browne is a half "foreign devil" living with anxiety relieved by purchase. HK-born Writer/Musician/Tinkerer.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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