Eileen Gu represented the United States for most of her life, but chose to compete for China in 2019.- After winning Big Air gold at the Beijing Olympics, she skirted questions about her citizenship.
Eileen Gu skirted round questions over whether she renounced her American citizenship to compete for China in the Olympics after winning gold in the women's in the Big Air competition on Tuesday.
Gu, 18, was born in San Francisco to an American father and a Chinese mother. Although she represented the United States for most of her life, in 2019 she made the decision to represent China.
As China does not recognize dual citizenship, Gu has not explicitly spoken about what citizenship she holds.
In January, her sponsor Red Bull claimed she gave up her US passport in order to compete for China, however an article on the official Olympic site in the same month referred to her "dual nationality."
"Are you still a US citizen?" a reporter asked her on Tuesday after her win.
Gu responded: "I've always been super outspoken in my gratitude to the US and to the US team as well. They have been nothing nut supportive to me, and for that I am forever grateful.
"And same to the Chinese team. They have been so, so supportive of me. And so in that sense, I feel like sport is really a way in that we can unite people, it doesn't have to be something that's related to nationality, it's not something that can be used to divide people.
"We are all out here together pushing the human limit."
Another reporter then said to Gu: "We understand that you are trying to unite people through sport, which is a great thing, but you were not clear about your American citizenship and if you live in the US or in China from now on."
Gu replied: "So I grew up spending 25-30% of every year in China. As you guys all know now from me answering questions, I'm fluent in Mandarin and English.
"I'm fluent culturally in both. I have family coming from Beijing, my mother grew up in Beijing."
She added: "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.
"I've been very outspoken about my gratitude to both the US and China for making me the person who I am.
"I don't feel as though I am taking advantage of one or the other because both have actually been incredibly supportive of me and continue to be supportive of me because they understand that my mission is to use sport as a force for unity, to use it use it as a form to foster interconnection between countries, and not use it as a divisive force."
—NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 8, 2022
During her press conference Tuesday, the teenager also sidestepped a question about the wellbeing of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai after her victory.
Peng, who went missing in November after accusing a former Chinese official of sexual assault, was in the stands watching Gu claim gold.
"It's a big honor when athletes from different
"I think it gives us an amazing platform to hopefully spread our small sport to the rest of the world.
"I'm really grateful that she's happy and healthy and out there doing her things again."