Praise for Eileen Gu breaks Chinese social media

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Two American-born athletes competing for China. Two radically different reactions from Chinese social media to their performances at the Winter Olympics.

As freestyle skier Eileen Gu won her gold medal in the big air competition on Tuesday, praise for the San Franciscan quite literally overwhelmed the Chinese internet.

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Sina Weibo, the massive social network that is similar to Twitter, found its servers temporarily overloaded, according to Chinese media. Of the top 10 trending topics on the platform, five were dedicated to adoration for the 18-year-old champion.

"Gu Ailing is a genius young woman right?" was one trending topic, referencing her Chinese name.

"Dad was Harvard, Mom was Peking University, Stanford, Grandmother was an athlete. She’s beautiful and classy," said one post recirculated 86,000 times.

It was a stark contrast to the reception received by another U.S.-born athlete competing for China, figure skater Zhu Yi, who a few days prior came under attack on social media after she crashed into a wall during the team event. Zhu finished last in the short program and China placed fifth in the competition, which was won by the Russian team, with the U.S. taking silver and Japan bronze.

Weibo said it had suspended 93 accounts and deleted 300 abusive posts about the Olympian, who was born in California to Chinese parents and won a U.S. national novice title as Beverly Zhu. Messages mocked her for falling while others criticized her for not being fluent in Chinese.

Gold medalist Eileen Gu of China celebrates during the medal ceremony for the women's freestyle skiing big air at the 2022