Eileen Gu has had a fixed spotlight throughout these Winter Olympics. The most decorated female freestyle skier in Olympic history added two silvers and a gold to her collection in Italy, but her path has been shadowed by the familiar controversies that seem to follow her. And Gu’s press conference comments drew the attention of former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason.

On his Boomer and Gio podcast, as reported by Awful Announcing, the Cincinnati Bengals legend and his co-host Gregg Giannotti offered a critique.

“I mean, so she’s a very, very attractive woman, and she’s extremely bright. She went to Stanford. But if you listen to her post, I guess 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,” Esiason said.

Giannotti steered the conversation toward the viral press conference itself, stating, “I mean, but how about that question that that woman asked, by the way? She’s like, how much do you think when this was like she’s like, I’m not this is out of respect. She’s like, I’m not being disrespectful. But how much do you think before you speak?”

He added, “Because I mean, you just have these such eloquent answers with anything that you’re asked, whether it has to do with the geopolitical climate or something that happened out there on the slopes or whatever it is. I mean, you just have the right answer for everything.”

Esiason returned to his remark, stating, “But the thing about her is that I will say that she’s exceptionally bright…She has her answer. She knows how she’s going to answer things, that’s for sure. But nobody’s really asked her a tough question. But that answer that she gave was just insufferable.”

The critique arrives amid a broader backdrop of scrutiny for Eileen Gu, who was born and raised in San Francisco before choosing to represent her mother’s home country of China in international competition. Even Vice President JD Vance recently took a public swipe at her during an interview on Fox News, questioning why someone who benefited from American freedoms and education would not compete for the United States.

However, Gu has provided ample responses to her critics.

Eileen Gu opened up about what made her the way she is

Amidst the wave of criticism that Eileen Gu has faced throughout the Milan Games, she provided a glimpse of her journey, which has been filled not only with glory but also with vulnerability.

“I’ve always thought that being the best is making things look easy. You are excellent, and it seems as though you kind of just cruise through life. Of course, you want another gold medal. But I think with vulnerability, there’s so much more power in that, because it empowers other people to feel as though they can undertake the journey too. And I’m not here to parade medals around,” she said during a recent press conference in Milan.

“I’m not here to stand on stage and tell everyone that I’m the best ever. The whole point of this is that if I can do it, then everyone else should try too. If I can do it, so can you, right? And so the point in that is showing people that it’s hard, right? I really struggled. I had a lot of mental health issues after the last Olympics. I dealt with severe injury. A year ago, I had a concussion in January of 2025.”

She won three medals at the recent Games, but just a few years ago, the situation was completely different. In 2023, she sprained both her ACL and MCL, bruised a bone, and had to pull out of events. And in 2025, she sustained an injury during the street style competition at the X Games.

Speaking of those struggles, she said, “I had seizures after, and people were worried if I was going to wake up. That’s a real terrifying experience to go through, and I dealt with injury, and I dealt with cyberbullying, and I dealt with so many different things. But what’s important, I think, is learning to start showing that to the world in a way that is beneficial, right? I also don’t want to be complaining, but the point is, I have difficulties too.”

Well, her words have two audiences; one that sees it as motivation, but for some, they find it exhausting.