Beijing 2022: Team US left baffled as Eileen Gu decides to compete for China

Beijing 2022: Team US left baffled as Eileen Gu decides to compete for China

Eileen Gu

Olympian Eileen Gu, who was going to be America’s one of the greatest medal prospects at the upcoming Beijing Games, came up with a shocker for her fans. The 18-year-old won’t be competing for the US at the 2022 Winter Olympics and this decision wasn’t taken well by members of the American skiing community.

What came as even more surprising was the fact that Gu has decided to participate from the hosting nation, China. Notably, she had recently signed with Victoria’s Secret and plans to attend Stanford after she vies for gold in Beijing.

“I have decided to compete for China in the 2022 Winter Olympics,” the San Francisco-born and -bred Gu announced in a 2019 tweet, months after she earned her first World Cup win in Italy at 15.

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“The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help promote the sport I love.”

Jen Hudak reacts to Gu’s last-moment, controversial call

Jen Hudak
Jen Hudak

Soon after Eileen made her decision public, she received massive criticism from social media users as well former US athletes. Meanwhile, Jen Hudak, a former Winter X Games gold medalist for the USA women’s team, said:

“It is not my place to judge, but Eileen is from California, not from China, and her decision [to ski for China] seems opportunistic.” 

“She became the athlete she is because she grew up in the United States, where she had access to premier training grounds and coaching that, as a female, she might not have had in China,” Hudak told The Post. “I think she would be a different skier if she grew up in China.

“This makes me sad,” added Hudak, who retired in 2014 after knee injuries derailed her career and has since co-founded Escapod Trailers. “It would be nice to see the medals going to America.”

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