Ex-NBA Star Has Harsh Words For Chinese Olympian Eileen Gu On Fox News | EUROtoday

Ex-NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom piled on to the often-conservative criticism of freestyle snowboarding nice Eileen Gu on Tuesday.

Gu, whose mom is Chinese, was born in San Francisco however is representing China for the second straight Winter Olympics.

She has earned China two silver medals within the Milan Cortina Games with the halfpipe up subsequent. She gained two golds and a silver in 2022. She has vaulted to worldwide fame as an athlete and generally a mannequin, reportedly incomes tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a 12 months ― a bit of which she has obtained from the Chinese authorities.

But as within the final Winter Olympics, Gu has gotten warmth for her alternative, although it needs to be famous that a number of U.S.-born athletes compete for different international locations. Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who was born in Oslo however has a Brazilian mom, has been broadly celebrated through the Games for representing a rustic apart from his birthplace. Gu’s defenders have advised that racism and Sinophobia are components in why she is being handled otherwise.

“I’m just going to say it. She’s a traitor,” Freedom informed Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. “She was born in America. She was raised in America, lives in America, and chooses to compete against her own country for, literally, the worst human rights abuser on the planet, China. She built her fame in a free country, and then chooses to represent an authoritarian regime.”

The former middle, who performed for the Utah Jazz, New York Knicks and different groups within the NBA from 2011 to 2022, added “Freedom” to his title when he grew to become a U.S. citizen in 2021. The former Turkish citizen was outspoken towards the Turkish authorities and had his passport canceled by the nation in 2017. He usually speaks out towards human rights abuses in China.

Before the Games, Gu defended her option to symbolize China.

“The U.S. already has the representation,” Gu mentioned, per Newsweek. “I like building my own pond.”

She additionally dismissed hypothesis that she selected China as a result of the monetary windfall was probably larger.

“I’m glad that there’s enough money in the sport now for people to think that’s a consideration,” Gu mentioned.

Even Vice President JD Vance weighed in about Gu’s resolution, beginning off diplomatically however ultimately throwing some shade her method.

Asked by Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Tuesday if the standing of the San Francisco-born athlete needs to be “changed,” the veep replied: “Well, look, I have no idea what her status should be. I think that’s ultimately up to the Olympics Committee. I won’t pretend to wade into that.”

“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,” he added.

“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,” Vance mentioned.