Questions about Gu’s citizenship status, rather than the dramatic victory [in the freestyle skiing big air competition at the 2022 Beijing Olympics], dominated the post-event press conference. Olympians must be citizens of the country they represent, and China does not allow dual citizenship. But no evidence suggests that Gu has renounced her American citizenship. So did China make an exception for Gu? During an hours-long interview in the Scharnitz rental house she’s sharing with [her mother] Yan, Gu declines to engage on the citizenship question. “I don’t really see how that’s relevant,” she says. (The Chinese Olympic Committee did not respond to a request for comment.)
She tried not to take the backlash personally. “There are geopolitical factors at play, and people just hate China generally. So it’s kind of difficult when I’m lumped in with this evil monolith that people want to dislike,” says Gu. “It’s never really about me and my skiing.” In late 2024, the Chinese government announced that around 313 million people had taken up ice and snow sports, or related leisure activities, since the 2022 Olympics. “I’ve made a lot of positive impact at nobody’s expense,” says Gu. “And I genuinely mean this without a hint of sardonic humor: use the time and creativity that it takes to craft some of these insults to think about what your talents are, and how you can use them to make the world better.”
She doesn’t believe it’s her place to comment on, say, China’s checkered human-rights record. For example, the U.S. government has accused China of abuses against its majority-Muslim Uighur population. “I’m not an expert on this,” she says. “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.” But as a Stanford international-relations major, she could surely do her homework on this issue, no? “I’m just more of a skeptic when it comes to data in general,” says Gu. “So it’s not like I can read an article and be like, ‘Oh, well, this must be the truth.’ I need to have a ton of evidence. I need to maybe go to the place, maybe talk to 10 primary-source people who are in a location and have experienced life there. Then I need to go see images. I need to listen to recordings. I need to think about how history affects it. Then I need to read books on how politics affects it. This is a lifelong search.”
So if she’s asked about Donald Trump’s China tariffs during an Olympic press conference in Italy, don’t expect a weighty answer. “I would just say, ‘I didn’t know I got promoted to trade minister,’” says Gu. “It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece for any agenda.”
~ Sean Gregory, "‘I Don’t Believe in Limits.’ How Eileen Gu Became Freestyle Skiing’s Biggest Star," Time magazine, January 22, 2026
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| February 9, 2026 |
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