US-born skier Eileen Gu, who won Olympic gold for China, is now an ambassador for Salt Lake City's Winter Olympics bid

• US-born Eileen Gu will serve as an ambassador for Salt Lake City's bid to host the Winter Olympics.
• The announcement comes months after she won multiple Olympic medals for China at the Beijing Games.

After winning multiple Olympic medals for China at the Beijing Games in February, California-born Eileen Gu will now serve as an ambassador for Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2030 or 2034 Winter Olympics.

The 18-year-old announced it at the Time100 Summit on Tuesday — a decision that was immediately deemed a betrayal by some Chinese social media users.

In just two days, the hashtag "Gu Ailing (Eileen) will serve as US Olympic bid ambassador" received more than 440 million views on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo.

"Which country is she really from?" a user commented.

"When she earns money in China, she's Chinese, and when she earns money in the US, she's American," another person wrote.

Others were more supportive and commended her for being a "good bridge" between China and the US.

The mystery surrounding Gu's citizenship has ruffled feathers since February's Beijing Games when the star skier chose to compete for China after representing the United States for most of her life.

Born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother, Gu skirted questions during the Games over whether she had renounced her American citizenship to do so. As China does not recognize dual citizenship, she has not explicitly spoken about what citizenship she holds.

"I definitely feel just as American as I am Chinese. I'm American when I am in the US, and I'm Chinese when I'm in China," she said during a February press conference.

Gu was a sensation in China during the Beijing Olympics — and not just because she helped the country win two golds and one silver medal. As the face of more than 23 brands in the country, the model was seen everywhere, endorsing everything from sports to luxury brands.

On Tuesday, Gu told Time that she signed on to work for the US bid to host the Winter Games because she saw it as a "beautiful example of globalism."

"Salt Lake specifically wants to become a global destination for athletes everywhere to come train there and they want to incorporate 15 new countries into the Winter Olympics," she told the outlet. "I think that's something that's really beautiful and I've always stood for that and so I'm really honored to be a part of the whole thing."