Naturalised athletes as national icons: official and netizen narratives of Eileen Gu in the 2022 Winter Olympics

As a naturalised athlete representing China, Eileen Gu’s Chineseness and citizenship status became a discursive battleground between different social actors in China during and after her participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics. This paper maps the interaction between official and everyday forms of nationalism, utilizing a qualitative content analysis of Weibo and Zhihu posts. The findings reveal that both the official and netizen narratives draw on ethnocultural forms of nationalism to legitimize and delegitimize Gu as a national icon. The hegemonic position of official nationalism in the Chinese context can, however, be challenged by everyday forms of nationalism. While this suggests that nationalist discourses within the Chinese context remain heterogeneous, such heterogeneity can nonetheless strengthen parochial, xenophobic and populist articulations of the nation.