Eileen Gu, an American-born Olympic skier who competes for China and is the highest-paid Winter Olympian with an estimated $23 million in earnings in 2025, is facing renewed criticism after publicly pushing back on President Donald Trump’s remarks about U.S. skier Hunter Hess—while continuing to avoid commenting on China’s alleged human rights abuses.
Gu told reporters she felt “sorry for the athletes” who have become entangled in political disputes and said Trump’s criticism “runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be,” adding that she herself had been “caught in the crossfire.” Her comments quickly sparked backlash from critics who highlighted her ongoing silence regarding China’s treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, including allegations of genocide, forced labor camps, and political repression under Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Critics argue the silence is especially notable given Gu’s decision to represent China instead of the United States, where she was born.
Former NBA player and human rights activist Enes Kanter Freedom dealt the most scathing blow to Gu, calling her a “traitor” who “chose to represent an authoritarian regime while cashing in on endorsements linked by watchdog groups to mass detention and forced labor camps.” Kanter Freedom wrote on X:
She built her fame in a free country, then chose to represent an authoritarian regime while cashing in on endorsements linked by watchdog groups to mass detention and forced labor camps.
When human rights come up, she disappears.
That’s not neutrality.
That’s a choice.
She chose to play for a country responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of its own people and that is running concentration camps right now, instead of the country where she was born and given opportunity.
You don’t get to enjoy the freedoms of U.S. citizenship while acting as a global PR asset for the Chinese Communist Party. By choosing to promote the CCP on the world stage, Eileen Gu forfeited any moral claim to America and should not keep her U.S. citizenship.
She chose Communism over Freedom.
Michael Sobolik of the Hudson Institute echoed those concerns, saying, “if you criticize America but won’t say a word about the CCP, that says a lot about you. If you’re an American athlete that leverages the freedom this country has given you to represent an authoritarian regime, that says even more.”