Eileen Gu Controversy: How Will Cain Got Himself In Trouble With China?
Renowned Chinese sportswoman, Eileen Gu, also known as Gu Ailing is again making the headlines. The well-known skier was chastised by the American press on Wednesday.
Will Cain, a Fox News host, labeled Gu as an “ungrateful traitor” on a show. Cain believes it is “shameful” for the young skier to reject the United States, which groomed her into a world-class skier in exchange for money and supposedly trained her into an athlete.
Gu will be competing in the next Beijing Olympics representing China. Among the companies that are sponsoring her are Louis Vuitton and Victoria’s Secret.
The host also criticized her for opting to represent China at the Winter Olympics, which sparked a worldwide debate and also made trends on social media.
However, Gu’s decision was primarily motivated by a desire to promote sports in China, and Wenxin expressed his displeasure, noting that it was not impossible that Gu was telling the truth when she informed the world about her choice.
Gu’s contentious decision has been a cause of conflict between the US and China, and it has persisted to do so even after Gu’s gold medal triumph in Beijing Winter Olympics on Tuesday.
There’s nothing new when the Western media have targeted an Asian athlete. Nina Schultz, known in China as Zheng Ninali, China’s first citizenship granted track and field athlete, opted to give up her Canadian citizenship in 2018.
Some in Canada, however, chastised the young woman, who is of Chinese origin, for her alleged apathy to “human rights atrocities” in China.
Gu, who was born in the United States, her mother is Chinese and her father is American. Eileen Gu was chosen to represent China in the 2019 Olympics.
Being one of the most well-known athletes at the Beijing Olympics, she has signed pretty much high end sponsorships and endorsements with huge businesses such as Bank of China and China Mobile.
Gu has become the face of advertisements, as well as modeling for a famous fashion brand, Louis Vuitton. Her powerful performance in the big air freestyle skiing event at an Olympics might be a watershed moment in the history of the games.
The tournament hoped to attract more than 300 million Chinese citizens to winter sports but because of the social restrictions, it has been overshadowed by tight efforts to regulate Covid-19.
Eileen is also popular in China where she was mentioned in seven of the top ten hot topics on Weibo, which is a Chinese social networking platform. She has gained almost 2.5 million followers and is usually referred to as a “Pride of China” on the internet.
Relevant hashtags, including such “Gu Ailing won the gold medal,” generated over 300 million views in just an hour, causing the whole Weibo site to breakdown owing to the large number of subscribers.
Gu refused to respond to several concerns that were raised about her actual citizenship, but claimed she spent 25-30% of every year growing up in China. She is one of numerous Chinese athletes that were born outside of China who are competing in the Olympics.
