[skip75]

Some food for thought, when you compete for a country in an international competition, who are you competing for, the country, its people or its government?

BC

I find the construct of the Olympics (and many international competitions) as trying to be "apolitical" somewhat humorous as they are a lot about nationalism, competition as country, the winner has their national anthem played, they tally medals by country, for any particular athlete they might think they are competing for their country or people or government but most likely are thinking more about competing for themselves and what winning means to them as an individual.  Some may be highly motivated by governmental financial support leading up to the competitions and additional rewards (or penalties) based on their results.

Going back to Gu, I think she (or her mom or both) made a business decision years ago that she/they thought would we best to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo_gb_a83xA

I came upon this interview with Alysa Liu. I found all of it to be interesting (some of it pretty well known now after all the coverage of her during the Olympics). She addresses the question of what "Team USA" means to her starting at 9:20 - interesting perspective from a thoughtful athlete.

[skip75]

Some food for thought, when you compete for a country in an international competition, who are you competing for, the country, its people or its government?

BC

I find the construct of the Olympics (and many international competitions) as trying to be "apolitical" somewhat humorous as they are a lot about nationalism, competition as country, the winner has their national anthem played, they tally medals by country, for any particular athlete they might think they are competing for their country or people or government but most likely are thinking more about competing for themselves and what winning means to them as an individual.  Some may be highly motivated by governmental financial support leading up to the competitions and additional rewards (or penalties) based on their results.

Going back to Gu, I think she (or her mom or both) made a business decision years ago that she/they thought would we best to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo_gb_a83xA

I came upon this interview with Alysa Liu. I found all of it to be interesting (some of it pretty well known now after all the coverage of her during the Olympics). She addresses the question of what "Team USA" means to her starting at 9:20 - interesting perspective from a thoughtful athlete.