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US Olympic figure skating sensation weighed in on controversy surrounding US-born Team China skier Eileen Gu for choosing to represent China instead of the US
Liu gave his thoughts and background with Gu during an interview with The New York Times.
“I’ve known Eileen since I was 13 or something. We’re from the Bay Area. She’s super cute and her mom is from China. I think people are hypocritical because they shame her for representing China. So in my mind, it’s kind of hypocritical because her mom is an immigrant. You guys would have told her to go back to China. Now that they’re back in China,” Liu said you’re back in China.
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Gold medalist Eileen Gu of China poses with her medals after winning the women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
“And it’s sport, it doesn’t matter what country we represent. Sport is sport and she has a love of competition, she has a love of the game. I think that’s all that matters. There’s no shame in going where the opportunities are.”
Gu was a target of global criticism during the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina when she won two silvers and a gold in freeskiing.
Vice President JD Vance even weighed in on Gu’s decision during an interview on Pakinomist when the Olympics were on.
“I have no idea what her status is going to be, I think that’s ultimately up to the Olympic Committee, I’m not going to pretend to wade into that,” Vance said.
“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States and who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I hope they will compete with the United States. So I will root for American athletesI think part of it is people identifying themselves as Americans. That’s who I’m going for in this Olympics.”
Gu later responded to Vance’s comment, continuing to agree that she feels like a “punching bag for a certain segment of American politics.”
“I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” Gu said of Vance’s comments, according to USA Today.
“So many athletes compete for another country … People only have a problem with me doing that because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity and they just hate China. So it’s not really about what they think it’s about. And also because I win. Like if I wasn’t feeling well I think they probably wouldn’t care and that’s ok with me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
Throughout the Olympics, and especially after Liu made history as the first American to win Olympic gold in a women’s individual skating competition since 2002 and the first American woman to medal in the event since 2006, the two athletes were relentlessly compared on social media for their similar backgrounds as American children of Chinese immigrants.
Liu’s father, Arthur Liu, fled China after participating in the Tiananmen Square protests in the summer of 1989 when he came to America and had Alysa through a surrogate and anonymous egg donor.
Gold medalist Alysa Liu of Team United States poses for a photo during the women’s singles figure skating medal ceremony on day thirteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the Milan Ice Skating Arena on February 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Gu’s mother, Yan Gu, was a student at Peking University studying chemistry and biochemistry, according to New York Times. She came to the United States to earn a master’s degree, eventually getting it from Stanford.
At the age of 40, Yan gave birth to Eileen and raised her as a single parent, according to Olympics.com. Not much is known about Gu’s father. Eileen has not publicly commented on him and declined to answer questions about him with The New York Times.
Then, around 2018-2022, China accelerated a program aimed at recruiting foreign-born athletes, primarily of Chinese heritage, to boost competitiveness, particularly for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and soccer, according to The China Project.
Gu and Liu were top recruiting targets.
Gu traded his red, white and blue for red and gold. Just months after competing in her first Freestyle Ski World Cup for the United States in January 2019, she competed for China for the first time in June of that year after requesting a change of nationality with the International Ski Federation.
In an announcement on Instagram, she said she made the decision “to help inspire millions of young people” in China and “to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication and create friendships between nations.”
US OLYMPIAN ALYSA LIU WAS ONCE TARGETED BY CHINESE SPIES – HERE’S WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT
The Lius remained loyal to Team USA.
Arthur was reportedly “not open to persuasion” to have Alysa compete for China, according to The Economist.
In an interview with Time Magazine, Gu was asked about her thoughts on China’s alleged persecution of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
“I didn’t do the research. I don’t think it’s my business. I don’t want to make big claims on my social media,” Gu replied.
“I’m just more of a skeptic when it comes to data in general. … So it’s not like I can read an article and say, ‘Oh, yeah, that must be the truth.’ I have to have a ton of evidence. I might have to go to the location, maybe talk to 10 primary source people who are at a location and have experienced life there.
“Then I have to go out and see pictures. I have to listen to recordings. I have to think about how history affects it. Then I have to read books about how politics affects it. This is a lifelong quest. It’s irresponsible to ask me to be a mouthpiece for any agenda.”
Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photos after the award ceremony of the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, February 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Liu and her family, on the other hand, found themselves in the crosshairs of China’s government ahead of the 2022 Beijing Games amid her father’s past and her own refusal to compete for China.
Prior to her appearance at the 2022 Beijing Games, she and her father were the alleged targets of a spy operation by the Chinese government.
Liu called the experience “a little bit freaky and exciting.”
“You know what I mean? It’s so … unbelievable. You know what I mean, it’s crazy,” Liu previously told Pakinomist Digital at a roundtable interview at the USOPC Media Summit in October.
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Gold medalist Alysa Liu of the United States displays her medal after competing in the women’s free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
“Like, imagine finding that out at such a young age, I mean, like in a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like on a prank show?’ Like, this world is real. I must be a movie character. But I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, from like everything my dad did back in his activist days.”
Since winning gold, Liu has surpassed Gu in social media followers. However, Liu has also withdrawn from the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czech Republic.
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