Eileen Gu and the chaotic trappings of being a hyphenated athlete (#31)
The publicity around Eileen Gu has stuck the Olympian between geopolitics and her bloodlines.
When it comes to the Olympics, I think we can all agree that the Winter Games don’t get as much hype as the Summer Games (sorry!!). But even so, I still couldn’t escape the excitement around Eileen Gu, the teen freestyle skier who’s become the Winter Games’ breakout star after snagging an impressive three medals (two gold) making her the first free skier to win that many medals in a single Olympics.
Despite her tremendous feat—at just 18!—Gu’s athletic performance has been overshadowed by her popularity off the slopes. At a glance, it’s easy to see why Gu would attract so much attention: she’s young, tall (clocking at nearly 6-feet), lanky, and very pretty. She’s graced magazine covers left and right and signed endorsement deals, both with global American brands like Victoria’s Secret, Tiffany & Co, and Beats by Dre to name a few, and national Chinese brands such as Anta sportswear and Luckin Coffee. But Gu’s also grabbed attention for another reason: the Chinese American athlete decided to play for Team China in this year’s Winter Olympics instead of Team USA—le gasp!
Before you join the bandwagon and freak out over her “disloyalty” to the U.S., I am here to remind you that switching teams—even national teams officially representing countries in world-class competitions—is… actually very normal for athletes! But of course, with Gu being biracial and coming from a Chinese American background, what should be a typical happenstance has morphed into some sort of geopolitical litmus test between the U.S. and China, with Gu caught in the middle.
But changing teams, even deciding to play for a country you haven’t before, isn’t uncommon among athletes. Competitive sports are tough and there is often too much talent but not enough spots on a team. If an athlete finds they have a better chance to compete as first-string in a major competition by joining a team elsewhere then why the hell not?
This usually happens in two ways. One, an athlete with a mixed background may be persuaded to join a national team if the athlete has family roots in the country—Gu, for example, is half-Chinese and was born and raised in the U.S. She’s spent many summers with her maternal family in Beijing, so it makes sense that she feels enough connection to China to want to play for them.
But an athlete doesn’t necessarily have to have that sort of connection to sign on to play for a country’s national team. It’s not unusual for athletes with no cultural or familial ties to a country to be naturalized to join their national team anyway. The most recent example of this is China’s men’s hockey team this year which is largely made up of white American and Canadian-born players (while everyone is fussing over Gu going from Team USA to Team China, I haven’t seen much ruckus made about these American male hockey players with no connections whatsoever to China playing for that country, as has been the case with Gu... interesting!).
The free association of athletes to move across borders and between nationalities has its perks, but there are also downsides. The public can be extreme and people will sometimes weirdly label these athletes as “unpatriotic” or as a “traitor” for choosing to represent a team elsewhere, something many U.S.-born athletes have experienced after choosing to play for another country.
Gu herself has been on the receiving end of a lot of deplorable comments of that nature. Take Nikki Haley, a Republican and the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (really) who had this to say about Gu’s choice to play for China:
In terms of the citizenship, look, China or the U.S.? You have got to pick a side. Period. You’ve got to pick a side because you're either American or you're Chinese, and they are two very different countries…Every athlete needs to know when they put their flag on, you're standing for freedom or you're standing for human rights abuses. There is no in-between.
It is a remarkably unhinged statement for a number of reasons, not limited to the fact that a 50-year-old diplomat is seriously suggesting that a teenager with no experience is supposed to get involved in international politics and that her decision to play for a specific country translates to her… supporting human rights violations? Haley’s comment is also ridiculous in suggesting that a biracial person or someone with a multicultural background cannot identify as multiple things at once. [Note: Haley, like Gu, is herself biracial being half Indian, but Haley doesn’t really like to highlight her Indian heritage unless it politically suits her.]
This kind of nationalism transcends party lines in the good ol’ U-S-of-A with some Democrats vocally unhappy with Gu’s decision to play for China, too. Here’s former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, questioning whether Gu still even has her U.S. citizenship:
Did she or did she not drop her U.S. citizenship to compete on Team China? Actually, it’s not really any of our business! I fail to see what bearing her citizenship has on her talents as an athlete, let alone on our lives as spectators? But these comments are perfect examples of the kinds of nasty remarks that have been lobbed against Gu after it came out that she was switching teams. Not only have some deemed her “un-American” for daring to choose her mother’s native country over her birth country, but people have also accused the teenager of money-grubbing, the idea being that Gu only wanted to play for China so she could secure endorsements with top brands—which some have speculated to total close to $31 million, making her as lucrative as past celebrity Olympian Michael Phelps—looking to break into the competitive Chinese market.
That Gu is taking advantage of the financial opportunities associated with playing is a pretty reasonable assumption… and why shouldn’t she? Gu’s public profile in China is totally different compared to how she’s perceived in the U.S. There, Gu is hailed as the country’s golden girl, with the media and public brandishing her with the odd yet loving nickname “Frog Princess,” a title that allegedly stuck since her younger years when she was routinely covered while sporting a frog-green ski helmet.
Of course, I am sure that people wouldn’t be making such a fuss about her choice if Gu didn’t turn out to be so damn talented. Gu has value as a now-proven gold medalist so it makes sense that people are “fighting” over her supposed allegiances, inadvertently projecting the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China onto an 18-year-old skier. But I wonder: did Gu receive the support and attention she deserved from her American coach and teammates before she became an Olympic star?
Her decision to play for China reportedly “disappointed” her American coaches but I question how much of that is true. Like, I’m sure they were sad to see a trainee go compete for another team but did they really care that much that she wasn’t part of the team anymore before they knew she was going to be a superstar athlete? If so, what offers—if any—were made to Gu to entice her to stick with them? Surely, you cannot expect a serious athlete to commit to a team without a return commitment that the team will support the athlete, whatever that support may look like?
The expectation that athletes should be “loyal” to one team or country for no other reason than “just because” is unrealistic. According to the New York Times, back in 2015, Gu was sponsored by Beijing Nanshan ski resort whose founder has been trying to popularize skiing in China. And, based on her Instagram posts, Gu’s early media coverage seems to have come from Chinese outlets. Chinese entities had the savvy to pay attention to—and invest in—Gu long before she started getting noticed over here. If that’s the case then Gu’s current commitment to China is nobody’s fault but the American parties who could’ve convinced her otherwise if they had given her attention. Why would she want to play second-fiddle on Team USA when she could be treated like a superstar on Team China?
Critics argue that Gu should’ve stuck with Team USA (she competed for the U.S. at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup before announcing that she would compete with China in 2019) simply because she is American. But what other advantages does she get from competing on behalf of Team USA other than the birthright she already has? I’ll admit it’s an unromantic concept but it’s a real consideration that every professional sportsperson needs to consider, including Gu.
In Gu’s case, you can’t ignore her identity as a Chinese American and what role that may have played in her decision, either. If she had stuck with Team USA, would the team—which appears exclusively white—have given her the adequate support she needed instead of pushing her to the sidelines, something which often happens to talented people of color no matter what their field? Not to mention if she had stayed with the team and performed horribly, imagining the racism she’d have to endure from Sinophobic American supporters. People like to think sports is a fairytale arena where people are only judged based on their “merits” but we know that’s not true; athletes of color experience racism all the time—sometimes in unimaginable ways.
A quote from footballer Karim Benzema, a Frenchman of Arab descent who has experienced a lot of racism during his career that I’ll never forget:
“If I score, I’m French, and if I don’t score, I’m an Arab.”
Although she made her choice to play for China before the pandemic, I’m sure it has not helped change Gu’s mind seeing Asian people continue to be threatened, beat up, and stabbed to death in America for simply “looking” Chinese—Gu has been outspoken about her own experience encountering anti-Asian racism in public while with her elderly Chinese grandmother. Do people think all that anti-Asian racism that’s been on full display in the states is good motivation for someone of Gu’s background to consider playing for Team USA? Nope!
Whatever her reasons for joining Team China, being both American and Chinese at a time when the U.S. and China are at odds means that the politicization of Gu’s choice was unavoidable (and I’m doubtful that she’ll be able to stay “apolitical” about her representing Team China for much longer). But people expecting athletes like Gu to give their all for nothing in return, simply on the basis of being “grateful” (for what… being born American?) and some abstract sense of “loyalty” is absurd.
As I’ve written before, sports aren’t just “games” for professional athletes, it is their livelihood. Being able to build a serious sports career—let alone one that’s Olympics-worthy—is notoriously challenging so athletes need to grab whatever opportunities they can to continue their careers. This means looking at where the best deals and support systems are for them to build that future, even if that means going abroad. So what if Gu decided to go with Team China because her prospects with them looked better? Because she felt they empowered her more? It doesn’t make her any less of an American. She is hardly the first athlete to make that kind of decision and she certainly won’t be the last.
What are your thoughts about competitive sports versus “loyalty”? Should Eileen Gu have stayed with Team USA or did she make the right choice? Sound off in the post’s comments or reply to this email!
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UPDATES ON RUSSIA/UKRAINE, OR HOW MACRON COULDN’T CONVINCE PUTIN TO CUT IT OUT
Tensions have risen on the border between Russia and Ukraine for the past few months but the most chaotic developments in the saga have arguably unfolded in maybe the last 24-48 hours. French President Emmanuel Macron, in an effort to prevent a literal war from breaking out, jumped on multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin to convince him to stop Russia’s alleged military advances by the Ukrainian border and to have a nice sit-down with U.S. President Joe Biden (even though, per usual, the U.S. shouldn’t really have any business in the matter). But, apparently, that didn’t go so well since Putin after the meeting signed off on recognizing two break-away separatist territories—Donetsk and Luhansk—as sovereign states from Ukraine, which many read as a clear F U from him.
Slighted by Putin’s actions, Macron requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and, hours later, the EU, the U.K., and the U.S. all came out with sanctions against Russia, which will prevent much funding from the West from flowing into the country (others like Canada, Japan, and Australia have also followed suit with their own sanctions). No doubt that the civilians entangled in all of this, be it in Russia or Ukraine, will be impacted the most.
The Guardian and other news outlets have live updates going on so check them out if you want to follow the situation in Ukraine.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: ON TECH DIFFICULTIES 💻
(You can read the actual article here.)
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SOME THINGS TO READ ABOUT
🔥 The Queen of England, who is 95 years old, continues to test human life longevity after testing positive for COVID-19. So far word is she’s still recovering but is OK. | NBC News
🔥 An Indigenous language of Chile known as Yamana has gone extinct after the recent death of its last living speaker. Cristina Calderon had worked to preserve her knowledge before her passing by creating a dictionary with translations to Spanish. | Reuters
🔥 The former Minneapolis cop who killed Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black motorist, during a routine traffic stop was sentenced to two years in prison—far lighter than the standard manslaughter sentence of seven years. | PBS NewsHour
🔥 An eight-year legal battle between families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre and Remington Arms, which manufactured the semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting, finally closed with a $73 million settlement. It is the only lawsuit against gun manufacturers that has successfully won a pay-out for victims’ families. | The Trace
🔥 The D.C. government and the U.S. Capitol Police have requested National Guard assistance in dealing with trucker convoys—an extension of what happened recently in Canada—headed for the Capitol this week. The Pentagon is expected to approve the deployment of 700 to 800 unarmed troops. | The Hill
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