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Add NFL MVP Boomer Esiason to the list of Americans who aren’t fans of Eileen Gu.
Gu, the Olympic medalist skier who was born and raised in the United States but has represented China, her mother’s native country, in international competitions, has once again been the topic of debate after her performance in Milan Cortina.
He Wall Street Journal reported last week that Gu and Zhu Yi, an American-born figure skater who now competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025 for “striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.” In total, the two were paid almost $14 million over the past three years.
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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the award ceremony of the women’s freestyle big air freestyle skiing event at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026. (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)
That information was much to the chagrin of the former NFL quarterback.
“The Chinese government paid her a lot of money. It’s kind of funny that a communist country would pay a woman to do propaganda as a capitalist,” Esiason said on the “Boomer and Gio” show Tuesday morning.
“She’s a very attractive woman and extremely bright. She went to Stanford. But if you listen to her post-participation interviews, she’s insufferable. She is. It’s hard to listen to her. But of course, it’s an individual sport where an individual person talks about themselves, instead of talking about their teammates or the support they receive. If you listen to her, you’re like, ‘What?'”
Chinese gold medalist Eileen Gu poses with her medals after winning the women’s freestyle ski halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Esiason and her co-host, Gregg Gianotti, made fun of the fact that a reporter praised her for seemingly always having the right answers to questions.
“They didn’t ask him about China’s communist government,” Esiason joked. “But the thing about her is, I’ll say this, she’s exceptionally bright. She has her answers, she knows how she’s going to answer things, that’s for sure. But no one has really asked her a hard question.”
Gu, already the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history, took home a gold medal in her final event of the Olympics on Sunday. In the women’s freeski halfpipe event, Gu scored 94.75, just 0.75 points better than her second run. No one came close to touching his mark.
Silver medalist Eileen Gu of the People’s Republic of China team smiles as she holds her faction skis and carries her national flag during the medal ceremony for the Women’s Freeski Big Air on the tenth day of the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at the Livigno Snow Park on February 16, 2026 in Livigno, Italy. (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
He finished his career at the Cortina Games in Milan with three medals in total: gold in the halfpipe event and silver in big air and enlopestyle. He has six medals on his resume.
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