Former NFL star says 'insufferable' Eileen Gu was given easy questions throughout Olympics
Add NFL MVP Boomer Esiason to the list of Americans who are not fans of Eileen Gu.
Gu, the Olympic medal-winning skier who was born and raised in the United States but has represented China, her mother's native country, in international competition, has become a topic of debate again after her performance at Milan Cortina.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Gu and Zhu Yi, a fellow American-born figure skater who now competes for China, were paid a combined $6.6 million by the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau in 2025 for "striving for excellent results in qualifying for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics." In all, the two were reportedly paid nearly $14 million over the past three years.
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That information was much to the chagrin of the former NFL quarterback.
"The Chinese government paid her a lot of money. It’s kinda funny that a communist country would pay a woman to be propaganda as a capitalist," Esiason said on the "Boomer and Gio" show Tuesday morning.
"She’s a very attractive woman and she’s extremely bright. She went to Stanford. But if you listen to her post-participation interviews, she’s insufferable. She is. It’s hard to listen to. But then again, it’s an individual sport by an individual person talking about herself, as opposed to talking about her teammates or the support that she receives. If you listen to her, you're like, ‘what?’"
Esiason and his cohost, Gregg Gianotti, both scoffed at the fact a reporter praised her for seemingly always having the right answers to questions.
"They didn’t ask her about the communist government of China," Esiason quipped. "But the thing about her is, I will say this, she’s exceptionally bright. She has her answers, she knows how she’s gonna answer things, that’s for sure. But nobody’s really asked her a tough question."
Gu, already the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history, took home a gold medal in her final event of the Olympics on Sunday. In the women’s freeski halfpipe event, Gu scored 94.75 – just 0.75 points better than her second run. Nobody came close to touching her mark.
She finished her run at the Milan Cortina Games with three total medals – the gold in the halfpipe event and silvers in big air and slopestyle. She has six medals on her resume.
Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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