China Briefing | Winter Olympics: Eileen Gu’s gold at Beijing 2022 Games shows China would benefit from more flexible citizenship rules

Name: China celebrates as US-born skier Eileen Gu wins Winter Olympics gold for host nation
Uploaded: 2022-02-12T01:30:18.000Z
Duration: 3 min 30 s
Description: China celebrates as US-born skier Eileen Gu wins Winter Olympics gold for host nation

As China celebrates its first gold medal in a snow event thanks to Gu, the US-born skier continues to be dogged by questions over her nationality

The debacle suggests China needs to consider more flexible immigration policies if it wishes to attract talent and become a global innovation centre

Reading Time:4 minutes

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Gold medallist Gu Ailing Eileen of China celebrates on the podium. Photo: Reuters

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:30am, 12 Feb 2022Updated: 5:20pm, 18 Apr 2022

United States-born Eileen Gu’s first stunning Olympic gold medal for China has made her probably the most fascinating star of the Beijing Winter Games, on and off the snow.

On Tuesday, the 18-year-old athlete jumped into first place at the Olympics’ inaugural women’s freeski big air final with a trick she had never tried in competition, making her the youngest freestyle skiing gold medallist in Olympic history and earning China’s first gold medal in a snow event. She is still heavily favoured to bag two more golds in the slopestyle and half-pipe.

Gu, whose mother is Chinese and father American, was born and trained as a high-flying skier in San Francisco before deciding in 2019 to represent China.

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China celebrates as US-born skier Eileen Gu wins Winter Olympics gold for host nation

Even before her Olympic gold medal win, she was already hailed as China’s snow princess on social media, captivating the nation as more details emerged about her academic excellence including her near-perfect SAT score and admission into the prestigious Stanford University.

But her Olympic gold win has intensified already heated discussions about her nationality and loyalty, as some Western media have used the word “defection” to describe her decision to represent China amid spiralling ties between Beijing and Washington.

In fact, it is not uncommon for some athletes to compete for countries other than the one of their birth, for opportunities and other reasons.

According to US media reports, Gus Kenworthy, a medal-winning US freeskier, decided to compete for Britain at the Beijing Games because his mother is British, while Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, who won a bronze with the US in the 2014 Games, has been bobsledding for her father’s home country, Jamaica, for the last six years.

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