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It isn't easy being Eileen Gu. The champion freestyle skier said the other day, after she had to settle for a silver medal in an event at the Olympics, that "sometimes it feels like I'm carrying the weight of two countries on my shoulders."
Gu would be carrying the weight of only one country if she had chosen to represent her native USA at the games, rather than a hostile totalitarian state.
Gu skis for China, a choice that is a little like deciding to represent a fascist country during the 1930s. China is bent on undermining U.S. power and supplanting Western values. It runs a gulag and has established a surveillance state. It's contemplating an invasion of Taiwan and is almost certainly the country most likely to nuke Los Angeles in a major war.
Gu's explanations for why she turned her back on the country where she was born and raised (her mother is a Chinese immigrant) are tinny and unpersuasive. She's spent significant time in China and says she admires Chinese culture, but there would be many ways to express that feeling without giving Beijing the propaganda victory of a superstar athlete draping herself in its flag.
She says she thought she could inspire more girls to take up skiing by competing for China, than if she stuck with the U.S. Really? Given that Gu is charismatic and gorgeous and has a legitimate modeling career, she'd still be a compelling ambassador for the sport if she competed under the Stars and Stripes.