Eileen Gu, the U.S.-born freestyle skier who opted to represent China, took silver in her first event of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Monday (February 9).
Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaud won gold in the Olympic Freeski Slopestyle with a score of 86.96 from her best of three jumps, edging out Gu’s best score of 86.58. The result was a repeat of the 2022 Beijing Games when Gremaud defeated Gu, 86.56 to 86.23, in the Slopestyle event.
Gu, 22, went on to win gold in the Big air and Halfpipe events in 2022, which she’s still heavily favored to win at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. The San Francisco native had previously faced the same criticism when she opted to represent China at the Beijing Games, which was once again a topic of discussion leading up to the Milan Cortina Games.
Gu, the daughter of a first-generation Chinese immigrant mother, claimed her decision was based on giving a platform of representation in a sport that’s not traditionally as popular in China.
“The U.S. already has the representation,” Gu said via Time Magazine. “I like building my own pond.”
“I’m glad that there’s enough money in the sport now for people to think that’s a consideration,” she added, insisting that she hadn’t thought about the potential to earn more representing Chinese companies.
Gu said prior to the 2022 Beijing Games that she spent at least a quarter of her life in China, though questions about her citizenship status were prevalent as the Chinese government doesn’t allow dual citizenship, meaning she would have to give up her U.S. citizenship in order to become a Chinese citizen. Time Magazine said that Gu “decline[d] to engage on the citizenship question” and there was no evidence that she relinquished her U.S. citizenship to represent China in the Olympics.
“I don’t really see how that’s relevant,” she said.
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