"when an American chooses to play for the Chinese team they are acting as the mouthpiece for an agenda. Dictators have used sports to burnish their reputations going all the way back to the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin and beyond. To be an American on Team CCP is to willingly support that effort. Eileen Gu lends a human face to an ugly system."
Excellent piece. Gu is the perfect case study of what happens when incentive structures reward moral vacancy. She didn’t choose China because of ideology or identity, she chose $23 million over integrity. That calculation, “marginal value of moral compromise,” is exactly the behavioral mechanism driving institutional collapse across America right now.
What disappoints me most is how pervasive this is. I hear people who claim to be anti-authoritarian, anti-Trump, disgusted by the regime, then casually say “well if you were offered enough money, would you do XYZ?”
That question itself is obscene.
There’s no amount of money that buys my integrity, and I see that same refusal in many writers here, commenters here, close friends I know.
But the broader American culture is corroded by incentive structures that make everything transactional.
Money isn’t just valued, it’s worshipped as the only thing that matters.
Gu chose tens of millions whitewashing genocide. That’s not success, that’s systematic erosion of the values that make any society worth living in. When profit consistently trumps principle, you don’t get a functioning democracy, you get a marketplace where everything, including human rights and institutional legitimacy, is for sale to the highest bidder.
What the hell is the point if this is the path people are willing to go down?
I saw the NBC piece about her where she was dashing between modeling shoots, class, and practice, thinking: why? Why would they glamorize her? They wasted airtime on her, when they could have focused on an American or one of our European friends racing against our team, like maybe a Ukrainian.
In stark contrast to Alysa Liu, Eileen Gu is a gold digging traitor. She was also born and raised in America, but chose to represent China because the CCP paid her millions. No MSM court eunuchs dared to ask her what she thinks of Xi Jinping’s human rights record. Yet they badgered every American athlete to denounce Trump and ICE. She should be deported. As the ultimate globalist shill, she is more loyal to money and her luxury brand sponsors than any nation - Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Porsche. Even Chinese citizens resent the special treatment she is afforded.
I think this is a great piece. But, I have to quibble with your opening, calling her "an American skier". She is not. She is an American citizen, but a Chinese skier.
She's awesome at what she does, she wins a lot and makes a ton of money. But she is not an "American skier".
She is an American and a skier. She is thus an American skier. Just not an American Olympic skier. She has sold out the country that gave her the opportunities that have brought her success. She sold out to the country that her mother left for cause.
I agree totally that she’s doing this for the money and the fame that goes with it. After the Olympics are over she goes back to being a nobody athlete in the US but something much bigger in China. She has to live with herself and her choices. And don’t tell me an over achieving Stanford student doesn’t know about how China has treated the Uyghurs. I call BS on that
Hi there, I agree with the vast majority of this--it is a great argument. Personally, I view Gu as an extremely talented skier, a beautiful model/spokesperson, an intellectually brilliant person, a very, very savvy businessperson...and a typical "for-profit Olympian," of whom there have been many. She is both a good winner and good loser, as well as a gal who doesn't miss a photo op or promo.
Her China choice turns my stomach. I once sent a letter to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to protest China's recent Most Favored Nation status in the midst of another wave of persecution they were instigating. Her response to me? In essence, "it's strategic." Wow, that was moral.
However, I have a hard time differentiating Gu from so many others. You did well to bring up Americans playing for the UK, as well. Or, for that matter, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Ireland, Russia (!), and Greece, to name a few. What about a hockey team that drinks beer with Kash Patel and laughs at their fellow (champion) USA women's hockey athletes being derided by Fake President Trump? Belorussians playing for AIN? Russians playing for Kazakhstan or Georgia (a country they have brutalized)?
Here's my point--when did we start expecting athletes to be "moral"? For that matter, how do people define "moral" and "traitor." Are athletes mandated to be moral? Olympians and athletes of all stripes chase money/funding as well as opportunity, for either necessity or advantage. But are we viewing morality strictly through specific patriotic American lenses? Was Jordan moral? How about Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, Conseco...and Sosa? Tom Brady or Joe Namath? FIFA? Ted Williams? The NFL?
Like I said, I agree with your premise. I support oppressed peoples, in both prayer and funding, whether in Ukraine, China, Sudan, Gaza, or Minnesota. We love watching the Olympics and pulling for good-hearted and inspiring athletes, worldwide. Not that they asked me, but I would have never represented China, period. Or Saudi Arabia, for that matter. Or Turkey. Or Qatar. Or Israel. Or El Salvador. However, with everything we are doing to the world and our fellow citizens and other humans, I don't think in good conscience I could have played for Uncle Donnie's USA, either. It's so layered. I grieve the pain of it all. But who is in and who is out, and on whose list?
Ali, Abdul Jabbar and several athletes have been moral. Jordan, although he was not heralded as such, when he played, has been spending millions on health centers in NC, his home state, among other things. LeBron started a school in Akron -his home town - and will be paying for college educations of graduates provided they make certain grades. You should not paint all athletes with 1 brush.
Absolutely, and that certainly is not my intention. I would call Ali's protest of our conflict in Vietnam heroic, while others called him a traitor (and still do). Jordan did the good things you said, while he also had a massive gambling addiction and other business dealings that I would say were not moral. But that's my point--athletes are a mixed bag and moral standards really depend on who is framing it. Case in point: to me, Gu's Chinese representation feels different versus the way I'd feel if she was playing for Russia. And JD Vance called her a traitor, while I would call JD Vance a traitor. So let me not be a hypocrite. It's a fascinating conversation.
And the main reason for that is attacks on American education and the concept of Western Civilization, in pursuit of ideas strenuously promoted in this country, having to do with pluralism and making things comfortable for the group promoting the ideas. We see the results of that today.
Noone should read this essay as though it is limpid and single layered.
« I think we need people like Ms. Gu to exist just to show us just how morally reprehensible our Western societies have become. »
It’s hardly a new phenomenon and not indicative of any particular trend. Democratically-educated people have been taking money or attention from authoritarian states, and lending their talent and fame to them, for a long time. Has everyone forgotten Lindbergh and the Nazis? Or all the Western intellectuals who paid court to Stalin?
Much more serious than a giddy young skier, the current American president takes money and attention from several authoritarian countries, to the detriment of his own.
It is disappointing that this issue with Eileen Gu has not been addressed in the traditional media, eg. NY Times. I may have missed something but have seen only unquestioning celebrations of her Olympic wins. I wondered why an American-born and raised athlete with a Stanford education and all the benefits she has enjoyed from this country would opt to represent our adversary. Good article.
I don't have anything of much interest to say I fear, but I offer one insight, having been a young adult myself once upon a time, youthfulness does cloud one's judgement.
When you add America's penchant for individualism, making a buck, and quest for fame, into the mix, her trajectory seems very American grindset does it not?
A nation of nihilistic self aggrandisement, cant really complain when someone maximises their nihilistic self aggrandiisement potential?
"when an American chooses to play for the Chinese team they are acting as the mouthpiece for an agenda. Dictators have used sports to burnish their reputations going all the way back to the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin and beyond. To be an American on Team CCP is to willingly support that effort. Eileen Gu lends a human face to an ugly system."
Simple truth.
Excellent piece. Gu is the perfect case study of what happens when incentive structures reward moral vacancy. She didn’t choose China because of ideology or identity, she chose $23 million over integrity. That calculation, “marginal value of moral compromise,” is exactly the behavioral mechanism driving institutional collapse across America right now.
What disappoints me most is how pervasive this is. I hear people who claim to be anti-authoritarian, anti-Trump, disgusted by the regime, then casually say “well if you were offered enough money, would you do XYZ?”
That question itself is obscene.
There’s no amount of money that buys my integrity, and I see that same refusal in many writers here, commenters here, close friends I know.
But the broader American culture is corroded by incentive structures that make everything transactional.
Money isn’t just valued, it’s worshipped as the only thing that matters.
Gu chose tens of millions whitewashing genocide. That’s not success, that’s systematic erosion of the values that make any society worth living in. When profit consistently trumps principle, you don’t get a functioning democracy, you get a marketplace where everything, including human rights and institutional legitimacy, is for sale to the highest bidder.
What the hell is the point if this is the path people are willing to go down?
—Johan
I saw the NBC piece about her where she was dashing between modeling shoots, class, and practice, thinking: why? Why would they glamorize her? They wasted airtime on her, when they could have focused on an American or one of our European friends racing against our team, like maybe a Ukrainian.
In stark contrast to Alysa Liu, Eileen Gu is a gold digging traitor. She was also born and raised in America, but chose to represent China because the CCP paid her millions. No MSM court eunuchs dared to ask her what she thinks of Xi Jinping’s human rights record. Yet they badgered every American athlete to denounce Trump and ICE. She should be deported. As the ultimate globalist shill, she is more loyal to money and her luxury brand sponsors than any nation - Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Porsche. Even Chinese citizens resent the special treatment she is afforded.
https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/2026-milan-olympics-inspiration
I think this is a great piece. But, I have to quibble with your opening, calling her "an American skier". She is not. She is an American citizen, but a Chinese skier.
She's awesome at what she does, she wins a lot and makes a ton of money. But she is not an "American skier".
She is an American and a skier. She is thus an American skier. Just not an American Olympic skier. She has sold out the country that gave her the opportunities that have brought her success. She sold out to the country that her mother left for cause.
First, Trump must be investigated, and he must be impeached.
Second, we have to stop MAGA authoritarianism for good.
If we keep electing men like Trump, they will keep undermining that foundation, until it finally collapses
"Eileen Gu is the face of a nihilistic, values-free attitude that puts narcissistic pursuit of profit above everything else."
Sounds like she stands pretty much in line with American values
I agree totally that she’s doing this for the money and the fame that goes with it. After the Olympics are over she goes back to being a nobody athlete in the US but something much bigger in China. She has to live with herself and her choices. And don’t tell me an over achieving Stanford student doesn’t know about how China has treated the Uyghurs. I call BS on that
Hi there, I agree with the vast majority of this--it is a great argument. Personally, I view Gu as an extremely talented skier, a beautiful model/spokesperson, an intellectually brilliant person, a very, very savvy businessperson...and a typical "for-profit Olympian," of whom there have been many. She is both a good winner and good loser, as well as a gal who doesn't miss a photo op or promo.
Her China choice turns my stomach. I once sent a letter to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to protest China's recent Most Favored Nation status in the midst of another wave of persecution they were instigating. Her response to me? In essence, "it's strategic." Wow, that was moral.
However, I have a hard time differentiating Gu from so many others. You did well to bring up Americans playing for the UK, as well. Or, for that matter, Puerto Rico, Lithuania, Ireland, Russia (!), and Greece, to name a few. What about a hockey team that drinks beer with Kash Patel and laughs at their fellow (champion) USA women's hockey athletes being derided by Fake President Trump? Belorussians playing for AIN? Russians playing for Kazakhstan or Georgia (a country they have brutalized)?
Here's my point--when did we start expecting athletes to be "moral"? For that matter, how do people define "moral" and "traitor." Are athletes mandated to be moral? Olympians and athletes of all stripes chase money/funding as well as opportunity, for either necessity or advantage. But are we viewing morality strictly through specific patriotic American lenses? Was Jordan moral? How about Bonds, Clemens, McGuire, Conseco...and Sosa? Tom Brady or Joe Namath? FIFA? Ted Williams? The NFL?
Like I said, I agree with your premise. I support oppressed peoples, in both prayer and funding, whether in Ukraine, China, Sudan, Gaza, or Minnesota. We love watching the Olympics and pulling for good-hearted and inspiring athletes, worldwide. Not that they asked me, but I would have never represented China, period. Or Saudi Arabia, for that matter. Or Turkey. Or Qatar. Or Israel. Or El Salvador. However, with everything we are doing to the world and our fellow citizens and other humans, I don't think in good conscience I could have played for Uncle Donnie's USA, either. It's so layered. I grieve the pain of it all. But who is in and who is out, and on whose list?
Maybe the AIN isn't looking so bad, after all.
Ali, Abdul Jabbar and several athletes have been moral. Jordan, although he was not heralded as such, when he played, has been spending millions on health centers in NC, his home state, among other things. LeBron started a school in Akron -his home town - and will be paying for college educations of graduates provided they make certain grades. You should not paint all athletes with 1 brush.
Absolutely, and that certainly is not my intention. I would call Ali's protest of our conflict in Vietnam heroic, while others called him a traitor (and still do). Jordan did the good things you said, while he also had a massive gambling addiction and other business dealings that I would say were not moral. But that's my point--athletes are a mixed bag and moral standards really depend on who is framing it. Case in point: to me, Gu's Chinese representation feels different versus the way I'd feel if she was playing for Russia. And JD Vance called her a traitor, while I would call JD Vance a traitor. So let me not be a hypocrite. It's a fascinating conversation.
I'm willing to bet Gu wasn't taught civics or ethics in US schools.
And the main reason for that is attacks on American education and the concept of Western Civilization, in pursuit of ideas strenuously promoted in this country, having to do with pluralism and making things comfortable for the group promoting the ideas. We see the results of that today.
Noone should read this essay as though it is limpid and single layered.
She chose to represent the interests of a sadistic torture state in return for a boatload of silver.
I think we need people like Ms. Gu to exist just to show us just how morally reprehensible our Western societies have become.
She could be a New York Times reporter, a Canadian Liberal Party politician, or a Hollywood actress and not caused an eye to blink.
« I think we need people like Ms. Gu to exist just to show us just how morally reprehensible our Western societies have become. »
It’s hardly a new phenomenon and not indicative of any particular trend. Democratically-educated people have been taking money or attention from authoritarian states, and lending their talent and fame to them, for a long time. Has everyone forgotten Lindbergh and the Nazis? Or all the Western intellectuals who paid court to Stalin?
Much more serious than a giddy young skier, the current American president takes money and attention from several authoritarian countries, to the detriment of his own.
Yes! Thank you for articulating what I feel, but could not rationally express, about her.
It is disappointing that this issue with Eileen Gu has not been addressed in the traditional media, eg. NY Times. I may have missed something but have seen only unquestioning celebrations of her Olympic wins. I wondered why an American-born and raised athlete with a Stanford education and all the benefits she has enjoyed from this country would opt to represent our adversary. Good article.
I don't have anything of much interest to say I fear, but I offer one insight, having been a young adult myself once upon a time, youthfulness does cloud one's judgement.
When you add America's penchant for individualism, making a buck, and quest for fame, into the mix, her trajectory seems very American grindset does it not?
A nation of nihilistic self aggrandisement, cant really complain when someone maximises their nihilistic self aggrandiisement potential?
What a bizarro world upside down story.
Fucking jew