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The American Olympic figure skating sensation has weighed in on the controversy surrounding American-born Chinese team skier Eileen Gu for choosing to represent China instead of the United States.
Liu gave his opinion and background to Gu during an interview with The New York Times.
“I’ve known Eileen since she was 13 or something. We’re from the Bay Area. She’s super nice and her mom is from China. I think people are hypocritical to shame her for representing China. So in my head it’s a little hypocritical, because her mom is an immigrant. Everyone would have told her to go back to China. Now that they’re back in China, they’re mad,” Liu said.
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Chinese gold medalist Eileen Gu poses with her medals after winning the women’s freestyle ski halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
“And it’s sport, no matter what country we represent. Sport is sport, and she loves the competition, she loves the game. I think that’s all that matters. There’s no shame in going where the opportunities are.”
Gu was the target of global criticism during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, as he won two silvers and a gold in freeskiing.
Vice President JD Vance even weighed in on Gu’s decision during an interview on Pak Gazette when the Olympics were taking place.
“I have no idea what his status should be, I think ultimately that’s up to the Olympic Committee, I won’t pretend to get into that,” Vance said.
“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America and who benefited from our educational system, from the freedoms that make this country a great place, I hope they want to compete with the United States of America. So, I’m going to support American athletesI think part of that is people who identify as Americans. “That’s what I support in these Olympic Games.”
Gu later responded to Vance’s comment, agreeing that he feels like a “punching bag for a certain current of American politics.”
“I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet,” Gu said of Vance’s comments, according to USA Today.
“A lot of athletes compete for a different country… People just have a problem with them doing it because they lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just I hate China. So it’s not really about what they think it’s about. And also, because I win. If I wasn’t doing well, I think they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s fine with me. “People have the right to their opinion.”
Throughout the Olympics, and especially after Liu made history as the first American to win olympic gold in a women’s singles figure 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, came to the United States and had Alysa through a surrogate mother and an anonymous egg donor.
Gold medalist Alysa Liu of Team USA poses for a photo during the medal ceremony in women’s single skating on day thirteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Gu’s mother, Yan Gu, was a chemistry and biochemistry student at Peking University, according to The New York Times. He came to the United States to pursue a master’s degree and eventually earned it at Stanford.
At age 40, Yan gave birth to Eileen and raised her as a single mother. according Olympic Games.com. Not much is known about Gu’s father. Eileen has not commented publicly about 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 descent, to boost competitiveness, particularly for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and soccer, according to The Chinese project.
Gu and Liu were the main recruiting targets.
Gu changed his red, white, and blue to red and gold. Just months after competing in his first freestyle skiing World Cup for the U.S. in January 2019, he competed for China for the first time in June of that year after requesting a change of nation with the International Ski Federation.
In an announcement on Instagram, he said he made the decision to “help inspire millions of young people” in China and “unite people, promote common understanding, create communication and forge friendships between nations.”
AMERICAN OLYMPIAN ALYSA LIU WAS THE TARGET OF CHINESE SPIES: THIS IS WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT
The Lius remained loyal to Team USA.
Arthur was reportedly “not open to persuasion” for Alysa to run for China, according to The economist.
In an interview with Time magazine, Gu was asked what he thought about China’s alleged persecution of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
“I haven’t investigated. I don’t think it’s my business. I’m not going to make big claims on my social media,” Gu responded.
“I’m just more skeptical when it comes to data in general… So it’s not like I can read an article and say, ‘Oh, well, this must be the truth.’ I need to have a ton of evidence. Maybe I need to go to the location, maybe talk to 10 primary source people who are in a location and have experienced life there.
“Then I need to go see pictures. I need to listen to recordings. I need to think about how history affects her. Then I need to read books about how politics affects her. This is a lifelong pursuit. It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the spokesperson for any agenda.”
Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China poses for photographs after the award ceremony of the women’s freestyle freeski big air skiing event at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, on Feb. 16, 2026. (Photo by Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) (Wang Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Liu and his family, on the other hand, found themselves in the crosshairs of the Chinese government ahead of the 2022 Beijing Games amid his father’s past and his own refusal to compete for China.
Before her appearance at the Beijing 2022 games, she and her father were alleged targets of a spy operation by the Chinese government.
Liu called the experience “a little strange and exciting.”
“You know what I mean? It’s so… unbelievable. You know what I mean, that’s crazy,” Liu previously told Pak Gazette Digital in a roundtable interview at the USOPC Media Summit in October.
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Gold medalist Alysa Liu of the United States shows off her medal after competing in the women’s free skate in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
“Imagine finding out that at such a young age. I mean, in a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like on some prank show?’ Is this world real? I must be some movie character. But, I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, because of everything my father did in his activist days.”
Since winning gold, Liu has surpassed Gu in followers on social media. However, Liu also withdrew from the upcoming World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czech Republic.
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