Controversy over gold medalist Eileen Gu skiing for China misses the point

It turns out Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu and I have something in common. We were both athletes at University High School in San Francisco.

She is one of the best skiers in the world and I was the backup first baseman on the varsity baseball team, so the similarity only goes so far. I don't follow sports other than baseball, so I learned of Gu only a few days ago when I saw a picture of her on our shared alma mater's Instagram page bidding her "good luck as she represents China in her first Olympic Games."

Very shortly after that, I began seeing articles about the controversy surrounding Gu's popularity and stature -- that she is representing China in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics but was born and raised in the United States.