Born in the U.S.A., skiing for China
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
What it means for a star American athlete to compete for China in the Beijing Olympics. Plus, how an anonymous Instagram account called “Dear White Staffers” is exposing what it can be like working for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
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Eileen Gu is an American dream of an Olympic athlete. Born and raised in San Francisco, she won gold in the big-air freestyle skiing event and is a favorite in two more events. But she’s not competing for the United States. She’s competing for China. Les Carpenter reports on how Gu’s choice magnifies the ongoing tensions between the United States and China.
An Instagram account called “Dear White Staffers'' has become a safe space for congressional aides to anonymously call out lawmakers and share their experiences. Marianna Sotomayor reports that the account is also galvanizing unionization efforts on the Hill.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.9 | On Tuesday, Olympic skier Eileen Goo took a big risk. |
| 0:23.5 | She tried to trick the she had never tried before in competition in the freestyle skiing big air event. |
| 0:29.8 | And she nailed it. It won her a gold medal. |
| 0:33.4 | My biggest strength is my brain. I think about everything thoroughly. |
| 0:38.2 | I visualize in vivid detail and when I want to do something I commit very fully to it. |
| 0:44.1 | Wyling Goo has already won a gold in big air which was her worst event. |
| 0:50.4 | That's less carpenter. He's in Beijing covering the Olympics for the post. |
| 0:54.7 | She also still has freesky slope style and she has freesky half pipe. |
| 1:01.6 | Those are probably ones where she would be favored easily to win the gold. |
| 1:05.8 | Eileen Goo is like if we these dreamed up an American athlete in a lab. |
| 1:11.2 | She's amazing at what she does. |
| 1:13.4 | She's arguably the best freestyle skier in the world right now. |
| 1:17.0 | She's smart, she's charismatic, she's also a fashion model. |
| 1:21.3 | She was born and raised in San Francisco and she's going to attend Stanford this fall. |
| 1:26.2 | And over the course of this Olympics she is very likely to win big. |
| 1:31.6 | They think everyone's assuming that she will have three gold battles at the end of this Olympics. |
| 1:35.8 | But Eileen Goo has chosen to compete for China and a lot of people have a problem with that. |
| 1:42.5 | If people don't believe me and if people don't like me then that's their loss. |
| 1:46.3 | They're never going to win the Olympics. |
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