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American-born Olympic skier for the Chinese team, Eileen Gu, came under immense scrutiny on social media this week after making comments about President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of American Olympian Hunter Hess.
Gu, who was born in San Francisco, is the world’s highest-paid Winter Olympian and will earn approximately $23 million in 2025 alone from partnerships with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China, and Western companies. Gu has said he represents China to his mother, who was born there.
Gu has never spoken out against alleged human rights abuses in China, including the country’s alleged systematic campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
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Gold medalist Eileen Gu of China celebrates during the medal ceremony in the women’s freestyle skiing at the 2022 Winter Olympics on February 8, 2022 in Beijing. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
However, Gu has commented on Trump’s criticism of Hess for expressing “mixed emotions” about representing the United States in Milano Cortina.
“I regret that the headline that is overshadowing the Olympics has to be something so foreign to the spirit of the Games. It really goes against everything the Olympics should be about,” Gu told reporters on Monday.
“The goal of sport is to bring people together… One of the few common languages, that of the human body, that of the human spirit, the competitive spirit, the ability to break not only records, but especially in our sport, literally the human limit. How wonderful is that?”
Gu also claimed that she herself had been “caught in the crossfire.”
“As someone who has been caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” Gu said. “I hope they can ski as well as possible.”
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Eileen Gu celebrates winning the gold medal after competing in the Women’s Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe Final during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Genting Snow Park. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports)
Gu’s comments have sparked backlash on social media, with many critics pointing out that Gu has never spoken out against China for its alleged human rights violations.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom criticized Gu in a lengthy post on X, calling her a “traitor.”
“Eileen Gu is a traitor. She was born in the United States, grew up in the United States, lives in the United States, and chose to run against her own country for the worst violator of human rights on the planet, China. She built her fame in a free country, then chose to represent an authoritarian regime while profiting from endorsements linked by vigilante groups to mass detentions and labor camps. When human rights arise, she disappears,” Kanter wrote.
“That’s not neutrality. It’s a choice. She chose to play for a country responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of its own people and which is now running concentration camps, rather than the country where she was born and where she had the opportunity.”
Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, also noted Gu’s silence on China’s alleged persecution of Uyghurs and political imprisonment of people who oppose Xi Jinping.
“Listen, it’s okay for athletes to criticize the president of the United States. It’s also not that interesting because it happens all the time. What’s interesting about this story… is that Eileen Gu is an American skier competing for China. There’s no mention of whether the CCP’s genocide of the Uyghurs ‘goes against everything the Olympics should be about.’ There’s no criticism of Xi Jinping for the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, Pastor Ezra Jin, Gulshan Abbas or many other prisoners politicians of China,” Sobolik wrote in X.
“If you criticize the United States but don’t say a word about the CCP, that says a lot about you. If you are an American athlete taking advantage of the freedom this country has given you to represent an authoritarian regime, that says even more.”
Republican communications specialist Matt Whitlock echoed similar criticisms of Gu in an X post.
“I can’t imagine a worse voice on this issue than an athlete who squandered her American citizenship for Chinese Communist Party endorsement deals. Does Eileen Gu have any criticism of Xi Jinping for genocide, slavery, and arrest of dissidents?” Whitlock wrote.
Several other X users spoke out against Gu.
Trump has been one of the most discussed figures at this year’s Winter Olympics, and several athletes have made suggestive criticism of his handling of the United States, including Hess.
Trump made a scathing post on social media, calling Hess a “real loser.”
“American Olympic skier Hunter Hess, a real loser, says he is not representing his country in the current Winter Olympics,” he wrote.
“If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the team, and it’s a shame he’s on it. It’s so hard to support someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Hess originally said about representing the US: “I think it brings mixed emotions to representing the US right now. It’s a little difficult. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t.
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China’s Eileen Gu reacts at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy. Monday February 9, 2026. (David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)
“I think, for me, the important thing is to represent my friends and family in my country, the people who represented it before me, all the things that I think are good about America. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s happening in America.
“I just want to do it for my friends, my family and the people who support me to get here.”
