'They just hate China': $30m megastar Eileen Gu claps back at US Vice President JD Vance, books final showdown with Aussie teen

LIVIGNO: Chinese megastar Eileen Gu has admitted she feels like a punching bag for a certain type of politics in America after she was criticised by US Vice President JD Vance this week.

Speaking to Australian journalists, including Wide World of Sports, after qualifying for the women's freestyle skiing halfpipe final on Friday (AEDT), the 22-year-old sensation, who already has five Olympic medals, said she felt unfairly singled out because people like Vance "hate China".

Gu's mother is a first generation Chinese immigrant to the United States but the skiing superstar was born and raised in America.

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She has been the target for constant criticism since committing to represent China, with the spotlight brightest at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, where she won two gold medals and a silver as an 18-year-old.

Vance has been in Italy during Milano Cortina 2026 and was asked directly about Gu's situation earlier this week.

"I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America," Vance said in a Fox News interview.

Responding to that claim, Gu said: "I'm flattered."

"So many people only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity and they just hate China, so it's like not really about what they think it's about [their views on China] and also because I win," she said.

"Like if I wasn't doing well, I think people probably wouldn't care as much and that's OK for me and people are entitled to their opinions.

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"There's a saying in Chinese that goes (speaks phrase in Chinese) - you can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep, which just means like if someone is so convicted in their beliefs, like I will never be able to justify or explain myself.

"I do what I do because I want to inspire the next generation of young women. I've said this since I was 10. Like no one was paying me when I was 10.

"No country wanted me to speak for them when I was 10. Like I have had the same principles since I was literally prepubescent.

"And so, it's like, if people don't believe me at a certain point, that's just on them."

Gu said that the heated commentary around her decision to choose to represent China instead of the United States at times made her feel unsafe.

She revealed last week to Wide World of Sports that she had in 2025 been attacked on campus at Stanford University, where she is a student majoring in international relations, and she repeated that claim after her halfpipe qualifying runs.

"Well, I was assaulted on the Stanford campus, not by a Stanford student, like a person who came and physically attacked me in broad daylight, and then our dorm was robbed," she said.

"Actually my roommate who's behind you [in the crowd] had to be called on as a witness for the case. Like it was pretty serious."

Gu has not quite lived up to her reputation as the best freestyle skier in the world at this Games, having been pipped for gold in both the slopestyle and the big air.

After an uncharacteristic crash in her first run in halfpipe qualifying, Gu, who earned more than $30 million via endorsements last year to make her one of the highest paid athletes in the world, put down a more assured second run to qualify for the final in fifth position, one spot behind Australian 16-year-old Indra Brown.

The qualifying session was at one stage halted for about 10 minutes after Canadian skier Cassie Sharpe, who had already completed a high-scoring run to qualify for the final in third, had a horror crash in her second run and had to be stretchered out of the halfpipe.

Gu earlier in the week went viral after clapping back at a journalist who asked if she had failed by her own lofty standards in Livigno, despite adding two silver medals to her extraordinary Beijing haul.

On Friday she again made the case for having the toughest gig out of everyone she competes with as the only athlete who is attempting to ski across three different freestyle disciplines.

"It's a challenge being the only person in this field competing in another event, let alone two, which means I'm coming off two weeks of the highest adrenaline peaks and troughs of my life," she said.

"And everybody else is fresh I had to miss a training because I was in the big air final.

"And then of those two trainings, one of them was like really heavy snow, so I didn't really get to ski a lot.

"I don't say this in the sense of complaining. Like this is my own bet on myself, so it's not a complaint. It's more just painting a picture.

"Like the realistic struggles that I'm going through that other people might not. So yes, I looked uncharacteristic in my first run."

Brown by contrast, looked in excellent nick as she sailed through two faultless runs for a best score of 87.50 to put her just outside the medal positions at the end of qualifying.

Australia's new teen queen of the halfpipe has had an exceptional last few months on the World Cup circuit, landing on the podium several times and winning her maiden title.

Speaking to Australian media, including Wide World of Sports, after qualifying for the final, Brown revealed she had spent several hours looking over maths homework "doing linear equations" before heading to the park for her first appearance in Olympic Games competition.

She took the pressure in her stride, adding a new trick to her second run as she builds towards a final where she is a genuine contender to stand on the podium.

"I want to just go out there, ski in my first Olympic finals at my first Olympics and enjoy it, because, you know, it's something that doesn't come very often."