China hails one of its US-born Olympians as it rebukes another

Gu celebrates on the podium during the medals ceremony after the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air final run during the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing on Feb 8, 2022. At one point after her victory, hashtags related to Gu’s performance were simultaneously the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh most-popular topics on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. — AFP

Chinese social media erupted with delight on Feb 8 after Eileen Gu, the US-born skier who decided to represent China at the Winter Olympics, won her first gold medal of the games at the Women’s Freestyle Skiing Big Air event in Beijing.

At one point after her victory, hashtags related to Gu’s performance were simultaneously the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh most-popular topics on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. One hashtag, which translated to #Eileen Gu Gold#, accumulated more than 370 million views in less than two hours after her win.