Eileen Gu, an American-born Olympic skier who competes for China, has been named the Grand Marshall of the 2026 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade.
San Francisco native and Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu has been named the grand marshal for the city's Lunar New Year parade.
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) January 22, 2026
Gu was born in San Francisco and won a total of three medals during the 2022 Winter Olympics, becoming the youngest freestyle skiing champion.… pic.twitter.com/0dp89rcXZo
Gu won two Olympic Gold Medals and one Silver Medal while competing for the People’s Republic of China in the 2022 Winter Games. Up until 2019, Gu had competed for the United States up until 2019, when she apparently decided that she’d rather represent her nation’s adversary instead.
At just 22-years-old, Gu is one of the most acclaimed female skiers currently competing.
San Francisco has decided to bestow the honorific on the traitorous Olympian anyway, much to the chagrin of those on social media.
This is actually disgusting.
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) January 23, 2026
Eileen Gu betrayed the United States to represent China at Olympic level and she did it for money.
She should not be afforded civic honours in the United States https://t.co/wSVUPmIIhd
Eileen Gu should renounce her US citizenship because dual citizenship isn’t recognized in China, and she’s representing them. https://t.co/RkqqhgmSoV
— Denise Wu (@denisewu) January 23, 2026
Eileen Gu is no longer a Chinese American, she is officially a Chinese Chinese. She changed her nationality from USA to communist China in June 2019. IOC confirmed she held a Chinese passport. She simply cannot hold a Chinese passport while being an American. https://t.co/lrvbRqwbyc
— Bin Xie (@bxieus) January 23, 2026
Some speculate the reason behind the decision may be monetary. Documents revealed by the French media showed that Gu had an annual training budget over $6.5 million, fully backed by the CCP, a figure the Chinese government has tried to hide.
Endorsement opportunities are reportedly more lucrative when representing the CCP, but Gu has denied that has influenced her decision-making.
“I’m glad that there’s enough money in the sport now for people to think that’s a consideration," Gu said in an interview with Time Magazine.
Gu will continue to betray her country of birth by representing communist China once again in the 2026 Winter Games.
