After Milan Games gold, Gu and Liu divide opinion from Beijing to Washington

Their divergent choices have drawn commentary from Vice President JD Vance, members of Congress pressing punitive legislation, and social media audiences on both sides of the Pacific — a debate layered with money, identity, and the weight of U.S.-China relations.

Eileen Gu, 22, a freestyle skier born in San Francisco, competed for China at last month’s 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and won gold. Alysa Liu, 20, a figure skater born in California, competed for the United States and became the first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold in 24 years. Both were born to Chinese immigrants and raised in single-parent households. The countries they chose to represent have made their parallel victories as politically charged as they are athletically remarkable.

The debate their choices have generated extends far beyond sports: from a congressional proposal to tax athletes who compete for adversary nations, to a Vice Presidential comment on Fox News, to rival waves of Chinese social media sentiment pulling between the two women’s contrasting stories.

Gu’s choice and the acclaim it earned in China

Gu has competed for China since the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, where she won two gold medals and one silver and was celebrated as a national idol known by her Chinese nickname, Frog Princess. Her performances in Milan were again closely followed in China. She has said her decision to represent China is less about financial incentive than about growing her sport in a country where she sees greater opportunity for girls than in the United States.

The financial dimension of her choice has drawn notice regardless. She has landed endorsements worth millions of dollars from major Chinese brands and multinationals eyeing the Chinese market.

Questions about whether Gu surrendered her U.S. passport — China’s law prohibits dual citizenship — have followed her throughout both Olympic campaigns. She has declined to answer.

“Today’s China is stronger, and it can provide Gu with interests that cannot be realized if she represented Team U.S.A.,” wrote Hu Xijin, a former party newspaper editor in China, 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.”

Backlash in Washington

Vice President JD Vance told Fox News during the Games: “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.”

Gu responded: “I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” USA Today reported.

Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, introduced a bill that would impose a 100% tax on athletes who compete for countries such as China and Russia. “Any American who works with a foreign adversary has not only betrayed our country but must be stripped of all benefits from doing so,” Ogles said.

Rep. Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, said Gu lacked “the respect for the country which has given them so much to represent that country.”

Susan Brownell, a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who studies Chinese sports and the Olympic Games, said citizenship changes are common in competitive sports and that other Chinese Americans and Chinese Canadians have played for Team China without generating comparable reaction. “It does really appear,” Brownell said, “that part of the issue here is if you’re good enough to beat the U.S.”

Liu’s different path — and her father’s story

For Alysa Liu, representing China is not under consideration.

Her father, Arthur Liu, fled China when he was wanted by authorities for participating in the 1989 student democracy movement, which ended when the Chinese military cracked down on protesters gathered in Beijing. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed on June 3–4. Alysa Liu was born to her father through surrogacy.

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

The FBI warned Arthur Liu that he and his daughter had been targeted in a Chinese government spying operation. He said he allowed Alysa Liu to compete at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games — where she placed sixth in women’s single skating — only after receiving assurances from the State Department and the U.S. Olympic Committee about her safety.

In Milan, Liu’s gold spread widely on Chinese social media. Some users described her as a “free spirit” and “more genuine.” Others pledged loyalty to Gu. Brief references to Arthur Liu’s role in the 1989 movement surfaced but remained cryptic; the events of June 3–4, 1989 — generally referenced in China as “6-4” — remain a deeply sensitive political taboo there, 37 years on.

What both athletes said

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

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

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