The snow in Milan doesn’t fall so much as it slaps you awake. Eileen Gu looked straight down a course that punishes hesitation and did the thing that has become almost irritatingly normal for her: she landed a run no one else could touch, then skated away like she had a flight to catch.
If the Olympics were only about sport, that would’ve been the end of it—another entry in an absurd record book. Eileen Gu is 22 and now owns five Olympic medals, a tally that stands at two golds and three silvers, making her the most decorated female freestyle skier in Olympic history. But in 2026, winning isn’t always the finish line. Sometimes it’s the trigger.
Within hours, Eileen Gu wasn’t just being discussed as the athlete who keeps rewriting what’s possible on skis. She was being sized up as a political symbol—again—because Vice President JD Vance decided to talk about her like she’s a civic lesson instead of a person.
In a Fox News appearance, JD Vance questioned the American-born skier’s decision to compete for China, her mother’s homeland, and he framed it in the language politicians love when they want applause without complexity. “I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” he said.
JD Vance tried to criticize Eileen Gu.
She turned it into a compliment in few words.
Eileen Gu’s ‘Sweet’ Reply To JD Vance’s Olympics Criticism
I’m flattered,” Gu said, per USA Today, when asked about the comment. “Thanks, JD! That’s sweet.” pic.twitter.com/pAkCc83csp
— 𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒𝑙. (@EnimolaDaniel) February 20, 2026
It wasn’t analysis. It was a loyalty test, delivered from the comfort of a microphone to a woman who spends her job hurtling through the air trying not to die.
Eileen Gu answered the way she tends to answer when adults with big titles try to shove her into an argument she didn’t start. “I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” she told USA Today, keeping it light enough to seem polite while still making clear she wasn’t impressed. Then she said the quiet part out loud: “And also, because I win. Like if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
That last line lands because it’s true in the plainest, most human way. Critics don’t usually waste this much energy on athletes who finish 14th.
Eileen Gu has been navigating this split-screen life for years. Born and raised in San Francisco, she announced in June 2019—at 15—that she would switch affiliations and compete for China. She’s also made history in the sport itself, becoming the first woman to land a double cork 1440 in freeskiing. None of that fits neatly into a cable-news segment, which is precisely why cable news can’t resist her.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! ⛷️🤩
FIVE-TIME Olympic medallist Eileen Gu continues to break ceilings as she becomes the most decorated female freestyle skier in Olympic history, following two silver medals at @MilanoCortina2026! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vSnVEDpfBW
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) February 19, 2026
It’s not just the medals. Eileen Gu exists at the intersection of sport, money, and national branding, and she’s thriving there in a way that makes everyone a little feral. She’s earned roughly $23 million, largely from endorsements, Forbes reported—income that outpaces what most athletes will see in a lifetime of prize money. According to People, those deals have included brands like Red Bull, Porsche, IWC Schaffhausen, and TCL electronics, while her competition winnings in 2025 were comparatively small.
When someone is that successful, the public doesn’t just watch—they claim partial ownership. And when Eileen Gu competes under China’s flag, a slice of America takes it personally, as if she broke up with them via press release.
What gets lost in the shouting is the cost of turning a young woman into a national argument. Eileen Gu told The Athletic she was “physically assaulted on the street,” adding, “The police were called,” and said she’s had death threats and her dorm robbed while she’s been a student at Stanford. Read that again and try not to feel your stomach turn. A skier makes a career choice at 15, and years later, strangers decide that violence is an appropriate response.
Eileen Gu’s approach, at least in public, is to stand on what cannot be debated: the scoreboard. When a reporter asked whether she viewed her results as “two silvers gained or two golds lost,” she laughed and replied, “I’m the most decorated female freeskier in history, I think that’s an answer in and of itself.”
Eileen Gu responds to JD Vance’s criticism about her representing China at the Winter Olympics. https://t.co/IcRe9nhvEY
📷: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
📷: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images pic.twitter.com/bOHzubi5Jz
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 20, 2026
You don’t have to love her decision about which country she represents to recognize the nerve it takes to keep showing up anyway—winning, smiling, and refusing to perform the outrage people keep demanding from her.
