During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the U.S. media issued an article provoking geopolitical issues between China and the United States. In response, the Chinese freestyle skier has responded.
On February 8, Beijing time, in the final of the Beijing Winter Olympics freestyle ski jumping event, Eileen Gu Ailing, the “top stream” of the Chinese delegation, won the first gold medal of the event in the history of the Chinese team in the Winter Olympics. As a top athlete, Eileen Gu faced challenges not only from the competition, but also from the New York Times, which raised geopolitical issues between China and the U.S. in its report, which was then defused by Eileen Gu.
On Feb. 3, the New York Times published an article, “Eileen Gu Tries to Fly Past U.S.-China Geopolitical Divide,” which said that naturalized athlete Eileen Gu is expected to win three gold medals at this year’s Winter Olympics. But her most difficult skill to master may be how to straddle the deepening divide between the two superpowers, fly over the Winter Olympics’ geopolitical strife, and then land safely.
In response to the New York Times’ comments, Eileen Gu responded, “I can do a backflip in a U-shaped snowfield about seven meters high. That’s not politics, that’s pushing the limits of humanity and connecting them.”
Notably, this is not the first time the New York Times has deliberately stirred up Sino-American geopolitical issues in an interview with Eileen Gu.
The article mentions that Eileen Gu gave a brief interview to the New York Times in December 2021 after she won the gold medal in the U-shaped course at the prestigious Surfing Tour event in Copper Mountain, Colorado. When the reporter asked a question about “China-related topics,” Eileen Gu immediately tried to end the interview by saying, “There’s no need to create divisions. I think what I’m doing is all about inclusion. It’s all about making everyone feel as connected to each other as possible.”
Eileen Gu, born September 3, 2003 in San Fransisco, California, USA to an American father and a mother, Gu Yan, from Beijing, China.
In June 2019, Eileen Gu announced on Weibo that she would be representing China. Source