Feb. 22, 2026
American Golden Girl Keeps Winning Medals for China
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RSS Feed 22 year old Eileen Gu made the decision in 2019 to ski for her mother’s home country of China rather than the U.S. Two Olympics later, and Gu is not only the most decorated female skier in her sport, but the highest paid athlete at the Winter Games. Gu has been criticized by many, including VP J.D. Vance, but she says money doesn’t motivate her, instead it’s the hope that she’s inspiring millions of young people where her mother was born.
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00:00:11
Speaker 1: Hey there are folks.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, February twenty second, and what a show she just put on at the Olympics. She's twenty two years oh born and raised in San Francisco. She's a Stanford student. And now this American born darling has now won six Olympic medals for China. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. She I was proud of her. I was rooting for Eileen Goo. And folks, no matter who you've been seeing, from Lindsey Vaughn to Ilia Mallinin and whatever else, the most talked about athlete has been Aileen Goo at these Olympics.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, she just won gold in the free ski halfpipe. I missed it this morning because I was sleeping, but you saw it all happen in real time.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: It was delayed.
00:00:59
Speaker 2: It was supposed to happened yesterday day before. They asked some whether so happened today? And she has now picked up this other goal.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: But roades.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: This is the reason this young lady she is. She is as American as it gets as far as her story goes. But she has been competing for several years now for China and to see this young lady pick up a gold medal today, her third of these games, third medal of these games, and immediately wrap a Chinese flag around her and go to the Chinese fans that were rooting for her. It makes your stopping, at least ask a couple questions. It does.
00:01:30
Speaker 4: Look her mother is Chinese born, her grandmother, those were the two biggest influences in her life. They raised her.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: Her father is American, but he's not in her life according to her and others. So yes, she is American, but clearly she identifies with the Chinese heritage and culture in terms of her upbringing.
00:01:49
Speaker 4: But yes, China is.
00:01:50
Speaker 3: China, and we are the United States, and we are not necessarily allies, so to speak.
00:01:55
Speaker 4: So it does pull at your your heart a little bit. Who do you root for?
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Is it okay to root for an American who's competing under the Chinese flag.
00:02:05
Speaker 4: Of course, people are conflicted.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: And that's okay to ask questions. I think the questions are fair. The criticism is not. Because if you don't know this young lady and her background and her story, and her motives and her desire and all this, I think your opinion would be different. If you just see, well, what you don't love America if you're competing for China. She also makes the point and if you all don't know Aileen Gou at this point twenty two years old, but she has been a star. She is the most decorated woman in her field. She does the free ski, she does the halfpipe, she does the aerials, and what's the third one?
00:02:39
Speaker 1: She does? Ropes? The one she slopes style.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: And again those aren't things weren't necessarily familiar with in this country because we don't watch one of the X Games, but robes.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: She is a representative of.
00:02:50
Speaker 2: A sport in which she is a superstar everywhere other than America.
00:02:56
Speaker 3: Almost Yeah, she's like, as you point out, she's a six time medallist, three goals, three silvers in two Olympics. She's been duped the snow princess. And you're right, I didn't know her name. Now, look, the twenty twenty two Winter Games were in Beijing, and you can understand why at that point. That is when she made the decision correct leading into those games.
00:03:15
Speaker 4: I think in twenty nineteen that was for you.
00:03:17
Speaker 2: I mean, she was eighteen going into those games, but she made this decision at fifteen sixteen to change because she used to be Yes spokes Aileen U used to be with USA Skiing and Snowboarding. She made the switch and wants to start representing China. Her motive, she said, was to why do I need to be in America where people already have access to resources, They have access to X Games, they have access to facilities and whatnot. She said, no, no, no, I can have more of an impact if I go take my heritage and take this face and this look, attached it to some skis and go be a representative of China. That was always She has stuck to that as her motivation.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Ropes Yes.
00:03:58
Speaker 3: This was actually her instant a post in twenty nineteen when she made the switch from Team USA to Team China. She said, the opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born during the twenty twenty two Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once in a lifetime opportunity to help promote the sport.
00:04:16
Speaker 4: I love through skiing.
00:04:18
Speaker 3: I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations. If I can help to inspire one young girl to break a boundary.
00:04:30
Speaker 4: My wishes will have come true.
00:04:32
Speaker 3: And she said this before she was the medalist, that she is the Olympian that she has become.
00:04:39
Speaker 2: Look, I don't know who was in her head and who was advising her as a teenager, but it was good advice, some would argue financially, we will get into why some are questioning just her the sincerity of her motives. I'm not knock yourself out, do you think, but she has been, no doubt controversial in these games. She's being controversial for a reason that quite frankly doesn't even come up during the Olympic for so many other athletes. This is just commonplace ropes. A lot of athletes who were born here, born there, compete for another country, compete from the country of their parents' birth, their heritage, whatever else. Sometimes times they can't make the cut for the US team and they go to another team.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: That's cool.
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Part of the problem, heroes, is that she is that good, exactly the best in the world, and she is American born and raised and bred, and you're gonna take your skills and go represent another country.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: That annoy some people, and not just another country, but what many people would perceive as one of our enemies, one of our non allies, at least to put it mildly.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's our biggest adversary. Two most populoust countries in the world and the two biggest economies in the world.
00:05:46
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, she's choosing them.
00:05:51
Speaker 4: Feels like Rejectionally, it feels like rejection.
00:05:53
Speaker 3: And then her adversaries are the people who are pointing fingers at her and feel.
00:05:59
Speaker 4: Some sense of anger and betrayal.
00:06:00
Speaker 3: I really think it feels like a sense of betrayal, like you've betrayed your country to go then bring home medals for our adversary. But on top of that, she is the highest paid athlete at the Olympics. And some would say because of her allegiance to China.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: We say allegiance like it's a bad thing, right, we talk about some secret agent that's allegiance. Right, her mom, this is where I'm this is her homeland. I mean, this is where she has a family connection. So I'm not mad at her for that. Now, if you want to make the argument that the answer she's giving robes about I'm doing this strictly because of my heritage for my family and my mother and I want to spread the sport. If you don't want to take her at her word, then I think it's also fair to say, Okay, she's getting a lot of money from that market.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Yes, I didn't realize this. According to Fortune magazine. You found this out too, she is the fourth highest paid woman in sports period, in all of sports, making more than twenty million dollars a year. And so yes, people pointed at and say we yeah, Okay, your heritage, honoring your mother and your grandmother. Okay, you're making a lot of money, but so.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: Much of that money the argument is coming directly from the Chinese government. There was a federation there reported by the World Street Wall Street Journal, that has given Aileenu and another athlete who is competing for China some fourteen million dollars over the past three years to compete. That is directly being reported by the Wall Street Journal and not necessarily being refuted by anyone necessarily Robes, Robes, I am. I have a very difficult time of criticizing a woman who is taking advantage of what is the most American of ideals capitalism. Go get paid, and so what gets you paid better? A different flag? Knock yourself out if you can do that again. You want to argue about human rights abuses, you want to argue about you not speak? How could you represent such a country? Okay, represent the United States. Maybe she's taken issue with something here as well. It's okay, folks, that's her mom. I have zero I have a question, but I don't have any criticism for this young lady taking advantage of a market for money if she wants to. But also, so yeah, she might feel a direct pull and a connection to that place. Is her mom in her ear talking? We just don't know, and so question sure criticism, Eh yeah.
00:08:36
Speaker 4: And do you I completely agree with you.
00:08:38
Speaker 3: And she genuinely, genuinely has a connection to China, genetically and genuinely, and that makes a lot of sense. And we don't know the relationship. It sounds like there is none. Maybe there's even some bitterness.
00:08:52
Speaker 4: In her relationship to her American white father. So maybe that makes her feel even.
00:08:57
Speaker 3: More proud to be an ash female living in the United States and not wanting necessarily as much to connect to him.
00:09:05
Speaker 4: Maybe that plays an emotional part of it too.
00:09:07
Speaker 3: We just don't know what's inside her head or inside her heart, But certainly I love what you just said. As an American, is there anything more American than having the freedom to choose how you make your money, how you choose to represent yourself, and who you choose.
00:09:22
Speaker 4: To align yourself with.
00:09:23
Speaker 3: We have freedoms in this country to make choices that can benefit us for whatever reason, even if it's emotionally or financially, whatever it is. It's well within her right as an American to choose who she decides to compete for.
00:09:37
Speaker 2: I think it's cool that Eileen put Eileen first in whatever this decision was. I do not mind that, and people have My first reference in this moment was about Lebron James. People are he has changed the NBA is such a way to players have more power to say.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: Where they're going to go. Right.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: They used to just be moved around like chess pieces, but he is. He became so powerful and other athletes followed his lead because he wasn't thinking about allegiance to the Heat, to the Cavaliers, to the Lakers. I'm gonna go where it works out best for me. And she's doing that kind of with her countries. And some people say that's not how you should toy around and play, but Robes.
00:10:14
Speaker 1: This is the thing.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Her experience in the United States of America is different from somebody else's who might born, raised, all their family history is here. I am a Black American. I view the United States of America differently from someone whose ancestry was different than mine and heard different stories.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: I had a different experience. That's okay, it's all American.
00:10:36
Speaker 4: That makes you make such a good point.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: It's all American.
00:10:39
Speaker 3: You can't apply your mentality and your experience and your genealogy to hers. Everyone has a unique story, and yes, that is what makes America the melting pot that it is. But you can't directly apply what you would do based on your experience and your family history and put it on her and say she should do and react and make decisions exactly.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: Like I would. That's not why we're the United States of America.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: But we're sitting here talking about what plenty of people do think it should be one thing that yet you can you cannot criticize your own country and still be called a patriot. And that's just okay, fine, We're not going down that rope. But Eileen gou she has been Robes. She has been on the cover of magazines, fashion magazines. She has walked not just red carpet, she has walked runways.
00:11:26
Speaker 4: She's the gorgeous girl.
00:11:27
Speaker 2: She is as intelligentic and photogeniccause you're going to get She has a golden smile. She knows how to answer every question perfectly with charm and intelligence and a sly little smile and sarcasm sometimes is needed. She is the perfect poster person for anything you want to sell, whatever.
00:11:46
Speaker 4: And you know what she is learning and has learned.
00:11:49
Speaker 3: I mean, she's been facing criticism for her choices, or for her this one specific choice since twenty nineteen, seven years.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: She's heard it.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything that anyone's hurling toward wards her that she hasn't already dealt with and hasn't already Basically, she's just said who she is, what she's doing, and she's made no apologies for it.
00:12:09
Speaker 1: She hasn't it.
00:12:10
Speaker 2: She continues not to apologize, even when the Vice President of the United States has some criticism to hurl her way.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Stay here for this.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Right we continue here on Amy and TJ final day of the Olympics clothing ceremony coming up here in just a little bit. But we watched Eileen Goo, the American Girl, win another medal for China. We say American girl because Robes her, her story, her even her demeanor, her attitude, her all of who she this powerful, strong, smart, athletic, brilliant woman. She's as all American as they get.
00:12:54
Speaker 1: But is she American?
00:12:56
Speaker 4: Well, she's competing for China.
00:12:57
Speaker 2: Technically, she's raised the United States. She was obviously birthright citizenship, she.
00:13:03
Speaker 4: Was born here, right, but the medals go into China's count.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Here is the question, Robes, and that's the ones she won't answer. Are you still an American citizen?
00:13:12
Speaker 3: We don't know, we don't know, We don't know the answer to that. And you pointed this out. I didn't realize. I've never had to do a deep dive on what it is to be a Chinese citizen or what it is to compete for the country of China. Apparently they don't allow dual citizenship. You did the research.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: No, I'm just saying, this is what raises the big question, this is what's been out there, And she won't answer, how are you able to compete for China? Because you should only be able to compete for China if you are a Chinese citizen, and if you are, that means you're not a US citizen.
00:13:43
Speaker 1: So what was up?
00:13:44
Speaker 3: Now?
00:13:44
Speaker 1: That's what I mean by a question? Is fine? Criticism not so much. And if she.
00:13:50
Speaker 2: Looks me in the face and said, TJ is none of your damn business what my citizenship is?
00:13:54
Speaker 4: Cool?
00:13:55
Speaker 2: Well I don't have a follow up. It's okay for her to keep that quiet.
00:13:59
Speaker 3: Now.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Now she has to understand the heat that comes with it, and she's getting some. But what does she owe anybody at this point?
00:14:08
Speaker 4: Nothing?
00:14:09
Speaker 3: Actually, And look in terms of pr maybe I don't know how it's playing out, but certainly I just read an article this morning.
00:14:15
Speaker 4: I was telling you it.
00:14:16
Speaker 3: Was like the Tale of two Asians and they were comparing a Lissa Lou to Eileen Goo, two gold medallists, two darlings from America. And you have a Lissa Lou whose father is from China, Tianeman Square escaped the Chinese government, came to the United States, a classic American immigrant story, and Alissa Lou comes up under that umbrella of yes, being an American but surviving Chinese communism, and she's competing for America, wins the gold and then you have Eileen Gou, who is now competing for tries.
00:14:50
Speaker 4: So they're saying good Asian, bad Asian. All of these hashtags are trending.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Believe me that those are all attributed to what's happening on social media, and so yes, I Goo might just write it out and say this too shall pass.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: She who knows what she feels like, she needs to add to the conversation, if anything at all.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: She's literally in figuratively winning, Like what do what do you have to say?
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:15:13
Speaker 2: She has six Olympic medals to her name, three of them are gold. She has twenty three billion dollars in the bank just from last year, and she's really something she's doing is working, keep going, Eileen.
00:15:26
Speaker 4: Well what I was going to?
00:15:27
Speaker 3: Come on, Eileen, I was laughing because she's actually only dealing with this criticism because she's so successful. Yeah, nobody if she wasn't winning gold medals, nobody would care. We care because we want her as hours. We want to claim her as hours. We're pissed off that China gets that medal Chi Ching instead of us because we want to claim her. So, yes, she's only in the middle of it, in the thick of it, because she's so damn good.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: What is this?
00:15:55
Speaker 2: What is this absolute? This idea that you're with us or against us? There is nothing in the middle. You're this or that, and that you're you're all American or you are anti American.
00:16:06
Speaker 1: It's not. It's just not the case.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: I assure you plenty of folks. Can you not take one issue with your country and not be a patriot. I'm just this is this young lady, Okay, she is not.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: She's not.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: It feels that way if you don't research. It feels like she's Chuning choosing Chinese culture, heritage, ideas, politics, all of this over what we think is the gold standard of all those things, which is our idea of what American life should be. So I guess that feels like a rejection. I just I wish we could be more diverse. It's crazy as it sounds, this melting pot. We don't seem very diverse in thought when it comes to what America and being an American is.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: Well, and having jd vance way in the way he did certainly doesn't help. In that conversation on Fox Right Fox, Yeah, he could have gone harder than he did. Look, I mean, he's somebody who obviously towse the administration line, but does it a.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Little bit more delicately than others. I would say the way he words things.
00:17:08
Speaker 3: But this is what jd Vance had to say about Eileen Goo on Box News. He said, 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 would want to compete with the United States of America. So I'm going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That's who I'm rooting for this Olympics. Look, that wasn't he could have gone much harder and much much harsher as some people have certainly online. But I do think that's so funny now in this world where we're living in where we all identify as things. Now we identify as Americans or not, regardless of whether or not we were born here or our citizens, we can either identify. Just that term made me laugh that a Republican was using it, just because it's something that typically is used in other avenues or areas.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: But look, Jade.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Vance weighed in. President Trump wighed in on Hess like we've had you know, we'll wait and see. I think, look, our men, the US hockey team just won an incredible victory over Canada. Maybe that'll take all the heat off of Eileen Gou or any anyone else who said something that seemed anti American at the Olympics. Maybe this big victory we had today will just overshadow any negativity that we've seen happen the last couple of days.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: This isn't going anywhere because Eileen Goo isn't going anywhere. She's twenty two. You're going to be here a lot about her the next time you hear about her. Might have nothing to do with sports. It might have to do with a fashion line. It might have to do with She is wildly popular in China, as you might imagine, she is a superstar over there and robes the look. You I know, folks, you've been watching her great sweet, cute smile, but she's got all this stuff on her.
00:19:00
Speaker 1: Look at her ads.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: She's wearing far less and she looks like an absolute supermodel.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: She does.
00:19:06
Speaker 4: That's why she's making well.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: She is the highest paid Olympic athlete at the Games, and you'll understand why.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: In performance and in fashion and in function.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: Basically we could say both, but certainly, as you point out, just twenty two, she has a long, potential, wonderful career ahead of her and we will be rooting her on. Thank you, though, for listening to us. As always, we appreciate you. I'm Amy Roboc alongside TJ. Holmes, where the rain has turned to snow here in New York City as we hunk her down for this nor'easter.
00:19:38
Speaker 4: We hope you'll keep listening. We will talk to you very soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there are folks.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: It is Sunday, February twenty second, and what a show she just put on at the Olympics. She's twenty two years oh born and raised in San Francisco. She's a Stanford student. And now this American born darling has now won six Olympic medals for China. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. She I was proud of her. I was rooting for Eileen Goo. And folks, no matter who you've been seeing, from Lindsey Vaughn to Ilia Mallinin and whatever else, the most talked about athlete has been Aileen Goo at these Olympics.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, she just won gold in the free ski halfpipe. I missed it this morning because I was sleeping, but you saw it all happen in real time.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: It was delayed.
00:00:59
Speaker 2: It was supposed to happened yesterday day before. They asked some whether so happened today? And she has now picked up this other goal.
00:01:05
Speaker 1: But roades.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: This is the reason this young lady she is. She is as American as it gets as far as her story goes. But she has been competing for several years now for China and to see this young lady pick up a gold medal today, her third of these games, third medal of these games, and immediately wrap a Chinese flag around her and go to the Chinese fans that were rooting for her. It makes your stopping, at least ask a couple questions. It does.
00:01:30
Speaker 4: Look her mother is Chinese born, her grandmother, those were the two biggest influences in her life. They raised her.
00:01:37
Speaker 3: Her father is American, but he's not in her life according to her and others. So yes, she is American, but clearly she identifies with the Chinese heritage and culture in terms of her upbringing.
00:01:49
Speaker 4: But yes, China is.
00:01:50
Speaker 3: China, and we are the United States, and we are not necessarily allies, so to speak.
00:01:55
Speaker 4: So it does pull at your your heart a little bit. Who do you root for?
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Is it okay to root for an American who's competing under the Chinese flag.
00:02:05
Speaker 4: Of course, people are conflicted.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: And that's okay to ask questions. I think the questions are fair. The criticism is not. Because if you don't know this young lady and her background and her story, and her motives and her desire and all this, I think your opinion would be different. If you just see, well, what you don't love America if you're competing for China. She also makes the point and if you all don't know Aileen Gou at this point twenty two years old, but she has been a star. She is the most decorated woman in her field. She does the free ski, she does the halfpipe, she does the aerials, and what's the third one?
00:02:39
Speaker 1: She does? Ropes? The one she slopes style.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: And again those aren't things weren't necessarily familiar with in this country because we don't watch one of the X Games, but robes.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: She is a representative of.
00:02:50
Speaker 2: A sport in which she is a superstar everywhere other than America.
00:02:56
Speaker 3: Almost Yeah, she's like, as you point out, she's a six time medallist, three goals, three silvers in two Olympics. She's been duped the snow princess. And you're right, I didn't know her name. Now, look, the twenty twenty two Winter Games were in Beijing, and you can understand why at that point. That is when she made the decision correct leading into those games.
00:03:15
Speaker 4: I think in twenty nineteen that was for you.
00:03:17
Speaker 2: I mean, she was eighteen going into those games, but she made this decision at fifteen sixteen to change because she used to be Yes spokes Aileen U used to be with USA Skiing and Snowboarding. She made the switch and wants to start representing China. Her motive, she said, was to why do I need to be in America where people already have access to resources, They have access to X Games, they have access to facilities and whatnot. She said, no, no, no, I can have more of an impact if I go take my heritage and take this face and this look, attached it to some skis and go be a representative of China. That was always She has stuck to that as her motivation.
00:03:57
Speaker 1: Ropes Yes.
00:03:58
Speaker 3: This was actually her instant a post in twenty nineteen when she made the switch from Team USA to Team China. She said, the opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born during the twenty twenty two Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once in a lifetime opportunity to help promote the sport.
00:04:16
Speaker 4: I love through skiing.
00:04:18
Speaker 3: I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations. If I can help to inspire one young girl to break a boundary.
00:04:30
Speaker 4: My wishes will have come true.
00:04:32
Speaker 3: And she said this before she was the medalist, that she is the Olympian that she has become.
00:04:39
Speaker 2: Look, I don't know who was in her head and who was advising her as a teenager, but it was good advice, some would argue financially, we will get into why some are questioning just her the sincerity of her motives. I'm not knock yourself out, do you think, but she has been, no doubt controversial in these games. She's being controversial for a reason that quite frankly doesn't even come up during the Olympic for so many other athletes. This is just commonplace ropes. A lot of athletes who were born here, born there, compete for another country, compete from the country of their parents' birth, their heritage, whatever else. Sometimes times they can't make the cut for the US team and they go to another team.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: That's cool.
00:05:20
Speaker 2: Part of the problem, heroes, is that she is that good, exactly the best in the world, and she is American born and raised and bred, and you're gonna take your skills and go represent another country.
00:05:32
Speaker 3: That annoy some people, and not just another country, but what many people would perceive as one of our enemies, one of our non allies, at least to put it mildly.
00:05:41
Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's our biggest adversary. Two most populoust countries in the world and the two biggest economies in the world.
00:05:46
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, she's choosing them.
00:05:51
Speaker 4: Feels like Rejectionally, it feels like rejection.
00:05:53
Speaker 3: And then her adversaries are the people who are pointing fingers at her and feel.
00:05:59
Speaker 4: Some sense of anger and betrayal.
00:06:00
Speaker 3: I really think it feels like a sense of betrayal, like you've betrayed your country to go then bring home medals for our adversary. But on top of that, she is the highest paid athlete at the Olympics. And some would say because of her allegiance to China.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: We say allegiance like it's a bad thing, right, we talk about some secret agent that's allegiance. Right, her mom, this is where I'm this is her homeland. I mean, this is where she has a family connection. So I'm not mad at her for that. Now, if you want to make the argument that the answer she's giving robes about I'm doing this strictly because of my heritage for my family and my mother and I want to spread the sport. If you don't want to take her at her word, then I think it's also fair to say, Okay, she's getting a lot of money from that market.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Yes, I didn't realize this. According to Fortune magazine. You found this out too, she is the fourth highest paid woman in sports period, in all of sports, making more than twenty million dollars a year. And so yes, people pointed at and say we yeah, Okay, your heritage, honoring your mother and your grandmother. Okay, you're making a lot of money, but so.
00:07:14
Speaker 2: Much of that money the argument is coming directly from the Chinese government. There was a federation there reported by the World Street Wall Street Journal, that has given Aileenu and another athlete who is competing for China some fourteen million dollars over the past three years to compete. That is directly being reported by the Wall Street Journal and not necessarily being refuted by anyone necessarily Robes, Robes, I am. I have a very difficult time of criticizing a woman who is taking advantage of what is the most American of ideals capitalism. Go get paid, and so what gets you paid better? A different flag? Knock yourself out if you can do that again. You want to argue about human rights abuses, you want to argue about you not speak? How could you represent such a country? Okay, represent the United States. Maybe she's taken issue with something here as well. It's okay, folks, that's her mom. I have zero I have a question, but I don't have any criticism for this young lady taking advantage of a market for money if she wants to. But also, so yeah, she might feel a direct pull and a connection to that place. Is her mom in her ear talking? We just don't know, and so question sure criticism, Eh yeah.
00:08:36
Speaker 4: And do you I completely agree with you.
00:08:38
Speaker 3: And she genuinely, genuinely has a connection to China, genetically and genuinely, and that makes a lot of sense. And we don't know the relationship. It sounds like there is none. Maybe there's even some bitterness.
00:08:52
Speaker 4: In her relationship to her American white father. So maybe that makes her feel even.
00:08:57
Speaker 3: More proud to be an ash female living in the United States and not wanting necessarily as much to connect to him.
00:09:05
Speaker 4: Maybe that plays an emotional part of it too.
00:09:07
Speaker 3: We just don't know what's inside her head or inside her heart, But certainly I love what you just said. As an American, is there anything more American than having the freedom to choose how you make your money, how you choose to represent yourself, and who you choose.
00:09:22
Speaker 4: To align yourself with.
00:09:23
Speaker 3: We have freedoms in this country to make choices that can benefit us for whatever reason, even if it's emotionally or financially, whatever it is. It's well within her right as an American to choose who she decides to compete for.
00:09:37
Speaker 2: I think it's cool that Eileen put Eileen first in whatever this decision was. I do not mind that, and people have My first reference in this moment was about Lebron James. People are he has changed the NBA is such a way to players have more power to say.
00:09:52
Speaker 1: Where they're going to go. Right.
00:09:54
Speaker 2: They used to just be moved around like chess pieces, but he is. He became so powerful and other athletes followed his lead because he wasn't thinking about allegiance to the Heat, to the Cavaliers, to the Lakers. I'm gonna go where it works out best for me. And she's doing that kind of with her countries. And some people say that's not how you should toy around and play, but Robes.
00:10:14
Speaker 1: This is the thing.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: Her experience in the United States of America is different from somebody else's who might born, raised, all their family history is here. I am a Black American. I view the United States of America differently from someone whose ancestry was different than mine and heard different stories.
00:10:33
Speaker 1: I had a different experience. That's okay, it's all American.
00:10:36
Speaker 4: That makes you make such a good point.
00:10:38
Speaker 1: It's all American.
00:10:39
Speaker 3: You can't apply your mentality and your experience and your genealogy to hers. Everyone has a unique story, and yes, that is what makes America the melting pot that it is. But you can't directly apply what you would do based on your experience and your family history and put it on her and say she should do and react and make decisions exactly.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: Like I would. That's not why we're the United States of America.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: But we're sitting here talking about what plenty of people do think it should be one thing that yet you can you cannot criticize your own country and still be called a patriot. And that's just okay, fine, We're not going down that rope. But Eileen gou she has been Robes. She has been on the cover of magazines, fashion magazines. She has walked not just red carpet, she has walked runways.
00:11:26
Speaker 4: She's the gorgeous girl.
00:11:27
Speaker 2: She is as intelligentic and photogeniccause you're going to get She has a golden smile. She knows how to answer every question perfectly with charm and intelligence and a sly little smile and sarcasm sometimes is needed. She is the perfect poster person for anything you want to sell, whatever.
00:11:46
Speaker 4: And you know what she is learning and has learned.
00:11:49
Speaker 3: I mean, she's been facing criticism for her choices, or for her this one specific choice since twenty nineteen, seven years.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: She's heard it.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything that anyone's hurling toward wards her that she hasn't already dealt with and hasn't already Basically, she's just said who she is, what she's doing, and she's made no apologies for it.
00:12:09
Speaker 1: She hasn't it.
00:12:10
Speaker 2: She continues not to apologize, even when the Vice President of the United States has some criticism to hurl her way.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: Stay here for this.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Right we continue here on Amy and TJ final day of the Olympics clothing ceremony coming up here in just a little bit. But we watched Eileen Goo, the American Girl, win another medal for China. We say American girl because Robes her, her story, her even her demeanor, her attitude, her all of who she this powerful, strong, smart, athletic, brilliant woman. She's as all American as they get.
00:12:54
Speaker 1: But is she American?
00:12:56
Speaker 4: Well, she's competing for China.
00:12:57
Speaker 2: Technically, she's raised the United States. She was obviously birthright citizenship, she.
00:13:03
Speaker 4: Was born here, right, but the medals go into China's count.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: Here is the question, Robes, and that's the ones she won't answer. Are you still an American citizen?
00:13:12
Speaker 3: We don't know, we don't know, We don't know the answer to that. And you pointed this out. I didn't realize. I've never had to do a deep dive on what it is to be a Chinese citizen or what it is to compete for the country of China. Apparently they don't allow dual citizenship. You did the research.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: No, I'm just saying, this is what raises the big question, this is what's been out there, And she won't answer, how are you able to compete for China? Because you should only be able to compete for China if you are a Chinese citizen, and if you are, that means you're not a US citizen.
00:13:43
Speaker 1: So what was up?
00:13:44
Speaker 3: Now?
00:13:44
Speaker 1: That's what I mean by a question? Is fine? Criticism not so much. And if she.
00:13:50
Speaker 2: Looks me in the face and said, TJ is none of your damn business what my citizenship is?
00:13:54
Speaker 4: Cool?
00:13:55
Speaker 2: Well I don't have a follow up. It's okay for her to keep that quiet.
00:13:59
Speaker 3: Now.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Now she has to understand the heat that comes with it, and she's getting some. But what does she owe anybody at this point?
00:14:08
Speaker 4: Nothing?
00:14:09
Speaker 3: Actually, And look in terms of pr maybe I don't know how it's playing out, but certainly I just read an article this morning.
00:14:15
Speaker 4: I was telling you it.
00:14:16
Speaker 3: Was like the Tale of two Asians and they were comparing a Lissa Lou to Eileen Goo, two gold medallists, two darlings from America. And you have a Lissa Lou whose father is from China, Tianeman Square escaped the Chinese government, came to the United States, a classic American immigrant story, and Alissa Lou comes up under that umbrella of yes, being an American but surviving Chinese communism, and she's competing for America, wins the gold and then you have Eileen Gou, who is now competing for tries.
00:14:50
Speaker 4: So they're saying good Asian, bad Asian. All of these hashtags are trending.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Believe me that those are all attributed to what's happening on social media, and so yes, I Goo might just write it out and say this too shall pass.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: She who knows what she feels like, she needs to add to the conversation, if anything at all.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: She's literally in figuratively winning, Like what do what do you have to say?
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:15:13
Speaker 2: She has six Olympic medals to her name, three of them are gold. She has twenty three billion dollars in the bank just from last year, and she's really something she's doing is working, keep going, Eileen.
00:15:26
Speaker 4: Well what I was going to?
00:15:27
Speaker 3: Come on, Eileen, I was laughing because she's actually only dealing with this criticism because she's so successful. Yeah, nobody if she wasn't winning gold medals, nobody would care. We care because we want her as hours. We want to claim her as hours. We're pissed off that China gets that medal Chi Ching instead of us because we want to claim her. So, yes, she's only in the middle of it, in the thick of it, because she's so damn good.
00:15:54
Speaker 1: What is this?
00:15:55
Speaker 2: What is this absolute? This idea that you're with us or against us? There is nothing in the middle. You're this or that, and that you're you're all American or you are anti American.
00:16:06
Speaker 1: It's not. It's just not the case.
00:16:08
Speaker 2: I assure you plenty of folks. Can you not take one issue with your country and not be a patriot. I'm just this is this young lady, Okay, she is not.
00:16:18
Speaker 1: She's not.
00:16:19
Speaker 2: It feels that way if you don't research. It feels like she's Chuning choosing Chinese culture, heritage, ideas, politics, all of this over what we think is the gold standard of all those things, which is our idea of what American life should be. So I guess that feels like a rejection. I just I wish we could be more diverse. It's crazy as it sounds, this melting pot. We don't seem very diverse in thought when it comes to what America and being an American is.
00:16:47
Speaker 3: Well, and having jd vance way in the way he did certainly doesn't help. In that conversation on Fox Right Fox, Yeah, he could have gone harder than he did. Look, I mean, he's somebody who obviously towse the administration line, but does it a.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Little bit more delicately than others. I would say the way he words things.
00:17:08
Speaker 3: But this is what jd Vance had to say about Eileen Goo on Box News. He said, 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 would want to compete with the United States of America. So I'm going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That's who I'm rooting for this Olympics. Look, that wasn't he could have gone much harder and much much harsher as some people have certainly online. But I do think that's so funny now in this world where we're living in where we all identify as things. Now we identify as Americans or not, regardless of whether or not we were born here or our citizens, we can either identify. Just that term made me laugh that a Republican was using it, just because it's something that typically is used in other avenues or areas.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: But look, Jade.
00:18:03
Speaker 3: Vance weighed in. President Trump wighed in on Hess like we've had you know, we'll wait and see. I think, look, our men, the US hockey team just won an incredible victory over Canada. Maybe that'll take all the heat off of Eileen Gou or any anyone else who said something that seemed anti American at the Olympics. Maybe this big victory we had today will just overshadow any negativity that we've seen happen the last couple of days.
00:18:29
Speaker 2: This isn't going anywhere because Eileen Goo isn't going anywhere. She's twenty two. You're going to be here a lot about her the next time you hear about her. Might have nothing to do with sports. It might have to do with a fashion line. It might have to do with She is wildly popular in China, as you might imagine, she is a superstar over there and robes the look. You I know, folks, you've been watching her great sweet, cute smile, but she's got all this stuff on her.
00:19:00
Speaker 1: Look at her ads.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: She's wearing far less and she looks like an absolute supermodel.
00:19:05
Speaker 1: She does.
00:19:06
Speaker 4: That's why she's making well.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: She is the highest paid Olympic athlete at the Games, and you'll understand why.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: In performance and in fashion and in function.
00:19:15
Speaker 3: Basically we could say both, but certainly, as you point out, just twenty two, she has a long, potential, wonderful career ahead of her and we will be rooting her on. Thank you, though, for listening to us. As always, we appreciate you. I'm Amy Roboc alongside TJ. Holmes, where the rain has turned to snow here in New York City as we hunk her down for this nor'easter.
00:19:38
Speaker 4: We hope you'll keep listening. We will talk to you very soon.