Eileen Gu may compete for China, but the only organization she actually represents is Eileen Gu, Inc.

LIVIGNO, Italy – Eileen Gu will likely win another medal in the women’s freeski big air final on Monday. And she will likely come to the press conference, as she always does, and sidestep any questions about the true nature of her citizenship, the political implications of her choice at age 15 to represent China — not her native United States — at the Olympics, and the various human rights atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party.

And then, 5,000 miles away in the United States, the fury will begin – directed both at Gu Ma in the country of her birth and the people here to document her achievements because we are not going after a dozen dead to create a moment on social media with Uyghurs, Taiwan and Jimmy Lai’s faith. Her heels and exposing her for the fraud some think she is.

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Eileen Gu, now 22 and an international relations major at Stanford, is many things. He is an opportunist. She is outwardly ambitious which makes you wonder how deep her inner cynicism runs. She presents her complicated life story through the lens of a saccharine-coated world that doesn’t exist and anything controversial is glossed over the moment it’s brought into her orbit. She can say a lot without saying a lot.

She is all of those things and maybe more.

But he’s not dumb, and he’s never been undisciplined enough to get on the wrong side of the government that made him very, very rich.

So committed is her life to the opportunistic ranks, perhaps it doesn’t matter what country she represents when it comes to skis because her ability to game the system for all it’s worth is as American as apple pie.

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Many of you want that answer? Sorry, but they’re not coming—certainly not to a press conference room in the Italian Alps after jumping off a 15-story ramp. They probably never come.

Did she cut a deal with the CCP to keep her American passport in defiance of Chinese law that does not allow for dual citizenship?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the $6.6 million he and another American-born athlete earned from the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau last year — an amount that was inadvertently disclosed in financial reports before being scrubbed from the Internet — were uncharacteristic strings attached?

Does she really believe that encouraging Chinese women to participate in the Winter Games will improve women’s lives in a regime that lags behind much of the modern world in terms of political representation, economic opportunity and the rights of victims of domestic abuse?

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He has been asked about all these things, many times in many different places over the years. And as good as she is on the slopes, she’s even better if she never goes there.

Milan Cortina told Time magazine’s Sean Gregory in an in-depth feature before the Games, when asked how she would respond to Donald Trump’s question about imposing tariffs on China: “I’ll just say, ‘I didn’t know I was promoted to trade minister.’ Asking me to be a mouthpiece for any agenda is irresponsible. “

So we all have a choice when it comes to Eileen Gu.

Do we want to drive ourselves to the brink of insanity with the flag of an oppressive regime, or do we accept him for what he is: a really good skier who doesn’t really affect anything in China or the United States and finds any way to take advantage of any of his behavior, to be the better person he is. Other athletes at the Winter Olympics.

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In Gu’s minor defense, it’s worth noting that he chose to compete for China when he was 15 years old.

Born to a single-parent Chinese mother, what do you think she knew at age 15? At that age, I doubt she expected it to be anything more than a business decision—and that, while undeniably complicated and perhaps morally problematic, proved right for her bank account and list of sponsors who wanted to be in the Eileen Gu business.

Did he have reason to think it would turn out this? do we People change nationalities in sports all the time – in both directions. He did this before the brutal crackdown in Hong Kong, before many people understood the extent of atrocities against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, before COVID. Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but the context of choice is not the context of choice now.

And since becoming an international superstar and four-time Olympic medalist — with perhaps two more to come here in Livigno — it’s not as if Gu has spent his social capital extolling the virtues of the CCP’s censorship regime and economic system. She talks about dividing and inspiring young people with her athletic achievements. She clearly wants no part of the culture war others try to drag her into.

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It may be cynical as hell, but don’t many fans want athletes to stick to sports?

Here’s the truth: Gu may wear a five-star red flag on her ski suit, but the only organization she really represents is Eileen Gu, Inc. Portraying him as something else to stoke American political outrage on social media is as despicable as he is.