After qualifying for the third Olympic Games this time, Irene Gu said that the US criticism was due to the fact that she was representing China. And because she won.
JD Vance criticizes Irene Gu, who will represent China at the Olympics
Vice President J.D. Vance criticized American-born skier Eileen Gu, who will represent China at the Olympics, in an interview with Fox News.
LIVIGNO, Italy – Despite her fears, Irene Gu continued her quest for her third straight Olympic medal in freestyle skiing. She fell on the first run of the women’s halfpipe heats in the snow on February 19th, but recovered to advance to the finals on February 21st.
But as usual for her, that was just part of the story of the evening.
Afterwards, the American-born player Gu, who represents China as one of the most famous athletes at the Olympics, answered a question about the criticism he has received in the United States.
That recently included Vice President J.D. Vance. In an interview with Fox News, Vance mentioned Gu and said he hopes people who grew up in the United States “want to compete with America.”
Goo said she wasn’t offended by Vance’s words, and when asked about Vance wanting her to represent the United States, she playfully replied, “I’m honored. Thank you, JD! That’s great.”
Continuing the theme, Mr. Goo answered in the affirmative when asked if he felt “a bit of a punching bag in certain parts of American politics right now.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Gu. “So many athletes compete on behalf of different countries. … The only reason people have a problem with me doing that is because they lump China together as this monolithic entity and they just hate China. So the problem isn’t what they think.
“And because I won, I think they probably wouldn’t care that much if I didn’t do well. And that’s fine with me. People are entitled to their opinion.”
When asked about his well-being, 22-year-old Gu said he was assaulted on the Stanford University campus last year.
“It wasn’t by a Stanford student,” she said. “It’s like someone came in broad daylight and physically attacked me. And our dormitory got robbed. … It was pretty serious, yeah.”
Mr. Gu was right about other players competing on behalf of other countries, even though they only competed on February 19th. Zoe Atkin of Great Britain, who won the halfpipe heats with a score of 91.50, was born in Massachusetts.
Two of the four Team USA skiers who participated in the event made it to the finals, with Svea Irving finishing eighth with an 80.75 and Kate Gray just barely finishing 12th (74.75) after waiting with her family for the last of the competitors to participate.
Although he was on the verge of being eliminated in the qualifying round and finished fifth with a clutch second run of 86.50 points, Gu is considered one of the favorites to win a medal, taking his total to six medals and repeating his historic 2022 Beijing Olympics where he won medals in the big air, slopestyle and halfpipe events.
“It’s a big deal to be the only one in this field to compete in another competition, let alone two in this field,” Gu said. “I mean, everyone else is feeling fresh because I’m high on adrenaline and pretty much coming off the best two weeks of my life. … I decided to compete in three events. It’s a bet on myself, so I’m not complaining. Rather, I’m just painting a picture of a real struggle that I’m going through that other people might not be going through.”
“Yes, it seemed nondescript on my first run. I also haven’t skated halfpipe in two months because I was training on the slopes.”
