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People are saying this past Olympics has been one of the more politically significant since the

1936 Berlin Games when Hitler and the Nazis ruled Germany.

It does feel a lot more political than past Olympics, with some athletes even going on record,

saying they don't want people to get the wrong idea because they are representing the United

States as an Olympic athlete. Speed skater Hunter Hess, for example, explained, I just kind of want to do it

for my friends and my family and the people that supported me getting here. He later clarified,

just because I'm wearing the flag, it doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.

Using the very freedom of speech guaranteed by a nation to refuse to praise that nation while representing them is perhaps the ultimate display of ingratitude.

Two of the more compelling tales of this are the stories of Eileen Gou and Alyssa Liu.

On paper, the two are very similar.

Both are Californians of Chinese descent and both are competing at the top levels of their events in the Milano Olympics. Both have left-leaning political views. Yet, in terms of gratitude, it couldn't be more dissimilar. That's because Guil made the choice to represent. Not the country of her birth, the country where she was raised and trained,

but the communist dictatorship of China. This is her second Olympics representing the red flag

on the world stage. Lou on the other hand is the child of a man who's a refugee from China.

He's wanted there for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests.

The last time she competed in the Beijing Olympics, she needed a security detail to protect her from PRC operatives who were targeting her and her father.

Lou doesn't just represent the U.S. She's representing the U.S. very well.

She competed on the ice with unfettered joy and pride and brought home the gold draped in the American flag. Goe won gold, too. Only, she didn't bring it home in the same

sense. It's China's gold medal, not ours. And that's a bit of a sticking point with Gu's critics,

because despite the fact

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