Eileen Gu soars to Olympic gold as China embraces dual-culture star

It amounted to the performance of these Games, on and off the snow. And across China it also led to an immediate outpouring of support and joy for Gu, who was born in the US before controversially transferring her allegiance to China three years ago.

There was also widespread praise for Gu on Chinese social media, with some noting approvingly that she had answered questions in fluent Mandarin with a Beijing accent absorbed from her mother. But to western ears, the way Gu navigated the trickiest geopolitical questions without upsetting the Chinese government was remarkable.

Additional reporting by Xiaoqian Zhu