Olympians Liu and Gu travel very different paths, and China-US relations hang over their stories

WASHINGTON (AP) — It is as captivating as it is divisive: the tale of two Chinese American athletic geniuses who have so much in common but make such different choices.

Eileen Gu, a 22-year-old freestyle skier, and Alysa Liu, a 20-year—old figure skater, were both born to Chinese immigrants in California, and both were brought up in single-parent households. Both are elite athletes who turned in gold-medal performances at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics last month.

But public opinion diverges over their choices about the countries for which they compete.

Gu chooses to represent China, while Liu waves the U.S. flag. Those decisions are generating heated debates over loyalty — an issue interwoven with money, values and politics on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

In China, many laud Gu for identifying herself as Chinese and competing for the honor of the motherland. But plenty praise Liu, too, for her free spirit and genuineness — sometimes with a subtle nod to her father’s role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests that landed him in the United States.

In the U.S., Gu’s choice has raised eyebrows among politicians, including Vice President JD Vance, and even prompted a congressional proposal threatening to tax 100% on athletes such as Gu who compete for countries like China and Russia in the Olympics.

“Any American who works with a foreign adversary has not only betrayed our country but must be stripped of all benefits from doing so,” said Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee.

For Gu, it’s a Chinese dream come true

To a large extent, Gu’s is a story of China’s economic success, when its spectacular growth has made it alluring for those with Chinese roots to return for greater financial gains.

Gu was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother working in finance. No information about her father is available. Gu competed for China in the Winter Games in both 2022 and 2026, and she has landed endorsements worth millions of dollars from major Chinese brands as well as multinationals eyeing the Chinese market.

In 2022, when she won two golds and one silver in Beijing, Gu was a national idol and fondly known by her Chinese nickname, Frog Princess. Video clips of her eating Chinese snacks went viral on social media. Her performances in Italy were closely followed and celebrated in China.

She has long said her decision to compete for China has more to do with getting girls involved in her sport — with a greater opportunity for growth there than in the United States — than about pure dollars and cents.

But controversy over Gu’s citizenship has cast a shadow over her popularity, with members of the public questioning her loyalty, wondering aloud if she has given up her U.S. passport to comply with the Chinese law against dual citizenship. Gu has dodged the question, making it anyone’s guess.

Hu Xijin, a former party newspaper editor in China, argued that what’s important for China is attracting talents like Gu and chalking it up as a win over the United States.

“Today’s China is stronger, and it can provide Gu with interests that cannot be realized if she represented Team U.S.A.,” Hu wrote in a social media post. “She has the sharp judgment to pick Team China, and this is the magnetic effect resulted from China’s growth.”

Liu has chosen differently

For Liu, skating for China is out of the question.

Liu was born to Arthur Liu through surrogacy. Unlike Gu’s mother, Liu’s father fled China when he was wanted by the authorities for his involvement in the 1989 student movement that ended with a bloody crackdown in the heart of Beijing and forced many student activists into exile. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed when the military quelled the protests on June 3-4, 1989.

“Chinese people still have no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, and there are still political prisoners in China,” Arthur Liu recently told Nikkei Asia. “Clearly, I wouldn’t allow my daughter to compete for such a government.”

While the Chinese government embraced Gu with flattering publicity and millions in state funding for her training, Liu said he only let his daughter compete in Beijing in 2022 with assurances from the State Department and the U.S. Olympic Committee about her safety. The FBI had warned him that he and his daughter were targeted in a Chinese government spying operation. That year, Alysa Liu placed sixth in women’s single skating.

This time, she became the first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold in 24 years. Her story spread wildly in China’s social media, garnering praises such as “free spirit” and “more genuine.” Some, however, pledged loyalty to Gu and suggested that Liu’s success was nothing for the Chinese people to get excited about.

With Liu’s rise, her father’s story bubbled up in China’s social media, though any mention was usually brief and cryptic because the 1989 Tiananmen Movement — generally known as 6-4 for the date of the military crackdown, remains a deeply sensitive political taboo in China 37 years later. While some called the elder Liu a freedom fighter, others denounced him.

The comparison between his daughter and Gu was so prevalent that Arthur Liu was asked about it.

“Everyone is entitled to her own ambition,” the father said in a YouTube chat with Zhang Boli, another former student activist. “The two have chosen different paths, and people immediately see the contrast. The contrast is so sharp that people cannot help but comment.”

Asked about the comparison recently, Alysa Liu told Newsweek: “Oh, my God, I think this discourse is really silly because we’re both half Chinese.”

Backlash in the US

The backlash against Gu in the United States this time appeared to start with Vance, who told Fox News during the Games that “I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America.”

In response, Gu said, “I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” USA Today reported.

Ogles’ bill aside, Rep. Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, slammed Gu for not even having “the respect for the country which has given them so much to represent that country.”

Citizenship change is nothing new in competitive sports, and other Chinese Americans or Chinese Canadians have played for Team China. But they have not riled up public opinion as Gu has, noted Susan Brownell, a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who studies Chinese sports and the Olympic Games. “It does really appear,” she said, “that part of the issue here is if you’re good enough to beat the U.S.”

Badiucao, a Chinese-Australian artist, illustrated the comparison in two drawings: one of Alysa Liu skating triumphantly along with the Statue of Liberty, the other of Gu draped in an oversized, blood-dripping piece of Chinese currency, its image of Mao Zedong looking over her shoulder.

“In a world of Eileen Gu,” the artist wrote, “be Alysa Liu.”

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AP sports writer Stephen Wade in Tokyo contributed to this report.