“When I’m in China, I’m Chinese”: Olympic Media, Nationalism, Identity, and Performance in the Controversial Case of Eileen Gu

Past studies have shown how Olympic media influence audiences’ nationalistic attitudes, yet the mechanism of constructing nationalism through sport-media events remains unclear since a key factor is missing—the athlete. Drawing on social identity and postcolonial theories, I examine how Olympic media impacted Chinese audiences’ nationalistic attitudes during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, particularly regarding Eileen Gu, who switches from representing the United States to China. To investigate the relationship between media exposure and nationalism, I proposed a mediation model and surveyed 327 Chinese audiences. Results show that the more media about Gu the audiences are exposed to, the higher levels of nationalistic attitudes they hold; Gu’s perceived identity and performance fully mediate the relationship between media exposure and nationalistic attitudes. This study contributes to social identity theory by revealing how athlete-centered sport communication shapes postcolonial nationalism through mediated perceptions of identity and performance.