The United States secured its first gold medal of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics Wednesday when Lindsey Jacobellis won the women’s snowboard cross competition.
The 36-year-old Jacobellis has been the dominant figure in the short history of the sport, but has come up short in her quest for Olympic gold since her debut at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy. She was heading to a certain gold medal at the Turin Games when she slipped and fell attempting a flashy move during a jump on the final leg of the race, forcing her to settle for the silver medal.
From left silver medalist France’s Chloe Trespeuch, gold medalist United States’ Lindsey Jacobellis and bronze medalist Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine celebrate during the venue ceremony for the women’s snowboard cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Chloe Trespeuch of France won the silver medal Wednesday, while Canada’s Meryeta Odine took home the bronze.
Jacobellis’s win came hours after U.S. skier Mikeala Shiffrin, the most dominant women’s Alpine skier of her generation, endured another shocking failure in her quest to add to her Olympic gold medal collection. Shiffrin was just seconds into her first run in the women’s slalom competition when she missed a gate and skied off the course, resulting in her disqualification, and sat despondent and dejected on the side of the course for several minutes.
Petra Vlhova of Slovakia took the gold medal in the women’s slalom, with Katharina Leinsberger of Austria taking the silver medal and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland winning bronze.
Also Wednesday, 21-year-old Birk Ruud of Norway won the gold medal in the men’s freestyle big air competition, with American Colby Stevenson taking home the silver medal, six years after suffering massive injuries in a near-fatal automobile crash, including a fractured skull. Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut won the bronze medal.
American snowboarders Shuan White and Chloe Kim both qualified to advance to the finals of the men’s and women’s halfpipe competition, respectively. The 35-year-old White, a three-time gold medalist, is competing in his final Winter Olympics, while the 21-year-old Kim is seeking to defend the gold medal she won at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang.
Five female ski jumpers have been disqualified from the Beijing Olympics after the International Ski Federation (FIS) ruled that their suits were too big.
Katharina Althaus, of Germany, soars through the air during a women’s normal hill ski jumping training session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Germany’s Katharina Althaus, Silje Opseth and Anna Odine Stroem of Norway, Japanese jumper Sara Takanashi and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz were all disqualified from taking part in the inaugural mixed team event, which featured teams with two women and two men each.
Althaus denounced the FIS decision, saying they “destroyed women’s ski jumping.”
Slovenia won the gold medal in the event, with the Russian Olympic Committee team winning silver and Canada the surprise bronze medal winners.
The glamour-girl-next-door image of Eileen Gu holding Lunar New Year treats illuminates bus stop ads throughout Beijing.
If you didn’t see those, you can hear China’s medal hopeful narrating a commercial for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in Mandarin.
And on newsstands, the freestyle skier is the cover model of this month’s Vogue Chinese edition.
Gu, China’s unofficial face of the Winter Olympics, is everywhere. And that omnipresence belies her origins in the United States, which raises questions about her citizenship as China does not allow dual citizenship.
Born on September 3, 2003, in San Francisco, California, to an American father and a Chinese mother who emigrated from China, Gu started training in the U.S. at the age of 8 and began competing in major skiing events in 2018 as an American.
On June 7, 2019, however, Gu announced her decision on Instagram to represent her mother’s homeland in the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“I am proud of my heritage, and equally proud of my American upbringings,” Gu wrote. “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love.”
Eileen Gu, of China, makes a run in the slopestyle finals, Dec. 17, 2021, during the Dew Tour freestyle skiing event at Copper Mountain, Colo.
Some experts say the reason behind Gu’s decision may not be that simple.
Besides her sports career, Gu is also a model who has appeared on the cover of Vogue Hong Kong and Vogue China. She has deals with luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Tiffany.
Lisa Pike Masteralexis, professor in the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told VOA Mandarin in an email, “Considering her goal of being a decorated Olympian, a role model, a fashion model, and with the growing market conditions in China, it appears to be a savvy move by Eileen Gu and her agency, IMG.” The agency represents top fashion industry names such as Alek Wek and Bella Hadid.
Susan Brownell, an anthropology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis with expertise in Chinese sports and the Olympic Games, told VOA Mandarin during a virtual interview, “What’s interesting about her is that she does have a number of major sponsorships, and so it appears that representing China is actually appealing to those sponsors, which is a rather new development that you would have, you know, a Chinese American athlete who chose to represent China and was still appealing to sponsors.”
IMG did not respond to a request for comments by VOA Mandarin.
Gu’s decision to represent China stirred questions about her citizenship status.
One of Gu’s main sponsors, Red Bull, used to have a message on its website that read: “At the age of 15, US-born Gu decided to give up her American passport and naturalize as a Chinese citizen in order to compete for China in Beijing – because Chinese law doesn’t recognize dual nationality.”
Eileen Gu, of China, looks toward the crowd following the halfpipe finals, Dec. 17, 2021, during the Dew Tour freestyle skiing event at Copper Mountain, Colo.
After the Wall Street Journal attempted to confirm Gu’s citizenship status in January, Red Bull removed the message.
VOA Mandarin messaged Gu and her sports agent but neither responded.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected VOA Mandarin’s request for comments.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and General Administration of Sports of China directed VOA Mandarin to the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC). But VOA Mandarin’s emails to the COC bounced back.
According to Rule 41 of the IOC Charter, “1. Any competitor in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country of the NOC which is entering such competitor. 2. All matters relating to the determination of the country which a competitor may represent in the Olympic Games shall be resolved by the IOC Executive Board.”
Gu also needs to comply with International Ski Federation (FIS) and National Olympic Committee rules. The FIS lists her as a Chinese athlete.
“A skier must be licensed by their home country to represent that nation, so Eileen Gu must have officially changed her license. According to Chinese media reports she did this in 2019 when she was 15,” Masteralexis said.
Although Masteralexis thinks Gu is following both the IOC and FIS rules, she said, “It has been reported in Chinese media going back 2-3 years that Eileen Gu was granted Chinese citizenship and China does not recognize dual citizenship. The US does recognize dual citizenship, so one does wonder if China has created an exception for Gu.”
In an interview with ESPN in 2020, Gu said, “Since I was little, I’ve always said when I’m in the U.S., I’m American, but when I’m in China, I’m Chinese.”
According to Brownell, all the foreign-born athletes who are representing China at the Olympics have refused to answer questions about the status of their citizenship.
She said it is not unusual for athletes to represent countries other than their birth countries at major sports events.
An article she co-authored with Niko Besnier, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, points out that in the past few years, the U.S. offered fast-tracked citizenship for some athletes who were in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The article notes, “Because the program involves enlisting in the U.S. Army, athletes who were born in other countries do not have to comply with the normal five-year residency rule that is strictly upheld for all other immigrants seeking citizenship.”
Heidi Grappendorf, associate professor of sport management at Western Carolina University, says seeking out athletes to compete for a country other than their birth country is against the Olympics’ true meaning and needs to be addressed by the IOC.
“When countries try to poach athletes from other countries to compete for them to make themselves look better, there certainly appears to be a violation of the Olympic spirit,” she said.
