Outrage as ‘China propaganda’ star handed ESPYS honour

Commentators have vented their fury after watching a Chinese Olympics champion scoop one of the biggest awards in American sport.

Eileen Gu has sparked another social media storm after winning an award at the annual ESPYS event.

The 18-year-old sensation emerged from the 2022 Winter Olympics as the biggest star of the Beijing Games after winning three medals for the host country.

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Her two gold medals and silver medal were tainted by suggestions she had betrayed the United States by switching her allegiance to China before the Games.

Branded a traitor by some sections of the American media, Gu’s appearance at the 2022 ESPYS at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles was too much for some to take.

Gu was overcome with emotion after her name was read out during the announcement for best breakthrough athlete.

Eileen Gu, winner of Best Breakthrough Athlete, attends the 2022 ESPYs. Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Gu was nominated alongside four American athletes, including Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant.

Her face lit up after the announcement.

Then it was social media’s turn to catch fire.

American podcaster Derek Hunter took to social media to describe Gu’s win as: “The Best communist sell-out to a genocidal regime for a pile of money goes to...Eileen Gu!”

Republican commentator Matt Whitlock wrote on Twitter: “Nice work @ESPYS. Great propaganda win for the guys running slave labor camps”.

Conservative news agency The Daily Caller wrote on Twitter: “Maybe we should give an award like that to American athletes who don’t support China”.

Eileen Gu at the 2022 ESPYS. Photo: Twitter, Instagram.

Philadelphia media commentator Greg Price posted: “ESPN gave the ESPY for “Breakthrough Athlete of the Year” to Eileen Gu, the skier who grew up in San Francisco, is a current student at Stanford, but renounced her U.S. citizenship to complete for China at the Olympics last year.”

It is the same public condemnation Gu endured during he Olympics where she was reduced to tears following her victory in the inaugural women’s freeski Big Air.

She showed plenty of emotion on Thursday, but never looked like crying as she gave her acceptance speech on stage

Gu thanked “all the women” who had gone before her and finished her speech in Cantonese saying: “In the end I want to thank all the people who support me”.

Gu’s popularity in China has exploded since the Olympics, picking up more than an extra million followers on Instagram.