A fresh political storm has engulfed Olympic skier Eileen Gu after she weighed in on President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of Team USA athlete Hunter Hess.
According to Fox News, Gu, an American-born freestyle skier who competes for China, addressed reporters Monday and expressed frustration that political headlines were overshadowing the Winter Games in Milan Cortina.
“I’m sorry that the headline that is eclipsing the Olympics has to be something so unrelated to the spirit of the Games. It really runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be,” Gu said.
Her comments came after President Donald Trump criticized Hess for expressing “mixed emotions” about representing the United States. Gu did not directly address Trump by name but framed her remarks around preserving unity in sports.
“The whole point of sport is to bring people together. … One of the very few common languages, that of the human body, that of the human spirit, the competitive spirit, the capacity to break not only records, but especially in our sport, literally the human limit. How wonderful is that?”
Gu also suggested she understood the pressures facing athletes caught in political debates.
“As someone who has got caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” she said. “I hope that they can ski to their very best.”
The remarks quickly sparked criticism online.
Gu, who was born in San Francisco, has said she represents China in honor of her mother, who was born there. She is the highest-paid Winter Olympian in the world, earning an estimated $23 million in 2025 through endorsement deals with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China, as well as Western brands.
Critics noted that Gu has not publicly spoken out about China’s alleged human rights abuses, including claims of repression against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom posted a lengthy rebuke on X.
“Eileen Gu is a traitor. She was born in America, raised in America, lives in America, and chose to compete against her own country for the worst human rights abuser on the planet, China. 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,” Kanter wrote.
“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.”
Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Sobolik echoed similar concerns.
“Listen, it’s fine for athletes to criticize the U.S. president. It also isn’t that interesting because it happens all the time. What’s interesting about this story … is that Eileen Gu is an American skier competing for China. No mention about whether the CCP’s genocide of Uyghurs ‘runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be.’ No criticism of Xi Jinping for the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, Pastor Ezra Jin, Gulshan Abbas, or China’s many other political prisoners,” Sobolik wrote on X.
“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.”
Republican communications specialist Matt Whitlock also criticized Gu.
“Can’t imagine a worse voice on this topic than an athlete who threw away her American citizenship for Chinese Communist Party endorsement deals. Does Eileen Gu have any criticism for Xi Jinping for genocide, slavery, and arresting dissenters?” Whitlock wrote.
