Free Republic

*** Gu, arguably the most polarizing Olympian of her era, was unable to defend her gold medal in Monday’s freestyle ski big air event. But she rallied from seventh place to win the silver medal with a stellar final jump, becoming the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history. *** As Gu celebrated after her final jump, the NBC commentators gushed, not even a little ironically, “Who isn’t an Eileen Gu fan?” Gu certainly has her fans, and 2.3 million followers on Instagram. But she has plenty of critics. She created a firestorm seven years ago when, at age 15,...

In the span of a week, three American-born athletes of Chinese descent have been thrust into the spotlight at the Beijing Winter Olympics -- to very different reactions in China. All three were trained in the United States and are only a few years apart in age, but their paths diverged on the way to the Games: freestyle skier Eileen Gu and figure skater Zhu Yi chose to compete for China, while Nathan Chen, another figure skater, opted for Team USA. The young athletes have found themselves embroiled in deteriorating US-China relations, during one of the most divisive, tightly controlled...