An unusual battle over the Milan Winter Olympics is taking place — not on the ski slopes or the ice rink, but on the Internet.
Its core characters are freestyle skier Gu Ailin and figure skater Alisa Liu. They have a lot in common: They are young Chinese-American women who were born and raised in the United States. They are champions in their respective fields.
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However, one is seen as a pioneer and the other as a traitor. At least that’s how it seems to some in the United States. On Chinese social media, the opposite is true.
Why? Liu is the daughter of a political activist who fled China after a deadly crackdown and is now competing under the American flag. Gu’s mother immigrated to the United States to pursue higher education, and she often spent her childhood summers in Beijing. She represented the Chinese team in the Milan competition.
This seemed to anger some Americans. “Ellen Gu fought for China and was paid millions of dollars to do so. Alyssa Liu is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests. In the world of Erin Gus, be an Alyssa Liu,” one post on X said.
The backlash appears to have been largely driven by political commentators and a vocal few on the X site, rather than the wider public or the sporting world. The underlying trend is competition between the United States and China – the world’s two largest economies vying for dominance in everything from trade to technology.
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As a result, a narrow and vociferous section of the internet is pitting the two women against each other, questioning their loyalties and identities while questioning their immigration experiences – and adding to the pressure they already face as sports figures.
“Snow White” and “The Patriot”
Gu Ailing is nicknamed “Snow Princess” in China. She was born in California to a Chinese mother and an American father.
Her parents separated when she was young, and she was raised by her mother, Gu Yan. According to reports, Gu Yan is a successful venture capitalist with degrees from Peking University and Stanford University.
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Gu found a foothold in both worlds, spending the summer in Beijing and the remainder of the semester at a private school in San Francisco.
She began freeskiing in the Lake Tahoe area at the age of three and joined the Northstar Resort Freeski team in California when she was eight. Just one year later, she won her first national championship.
She initially skied for the United States before switching to Team China in 2019 to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese capital.
Gu said she wanted to “inspire millions of young people in Beijing, my mother’s birthplace.” The decision won her praise from many in China.
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She won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2022 Olympics.
Since then, Gu has become a veritable sports icon in China. Millions of Chinese follow her every move on social media, leaving heart emojis under her posts.
China’s state-run Global Times called her an “icon around the world.” She is also one of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, reportedly earning around $23 million (£16.9 million) a year.
Her decision to join the Chinese team initially caused considerable backlash. In addition to competition with the United States, questions have also been raised about China’s authoritarian Communist rulers, their poor record on human rights and the country’s lack of free speech.
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But until now, the outrage has largely subsided.
Gu Ailing has become a model for China [Getty Images]
It started last week when Olympian Hunter Hess was asked how he felt about representing the United States given the polarizing situation in the country, including the recent controversial ICE raid in Minnesota that left two people dead.
He responded that he had “mixed feelings” about it, adding: “Just because I’m wearing a flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in America.”
President Donald Trump responded to Hess’s comments, calling him a “real loser” who “should not be trying out for the team.” Many athletes came to Hess’ defense, including Gu: “As someone who has been in the crossfire, I feel bad for the athletes.”
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Her comments angered her critics, who said Google was able to criticize Trump but had never spoken out against China.
Former NBA player Enes Kanter Fried was one of them, calling Gu a “traitor” who “was born in the United States, grew up in the United States, lives in the United States, and chose to fight against her own country against the worst human rights violator on earth – China.”
“You can’t serve as a global public relations asset for the Chinese Communist Party and enjoy the freedoms of American citizens at the same time,” he said in a lengthy post on X.
“Does Gu Ailing have any criticism of Xi Jinping’s genocide, enslavement and arrest of dissidents?” Matt Whitlock, a self-proclaimed Republican communicator, also posted on “X”. Western governments, rights groups and the United Nations have repeatedly accused Beijing of serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, and have been quick to suppress protests and dissent across the country. The Chinese government denies the accusations and says they are internal matters.
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“Many U.S.-born athletes represent other countries with little fanfare – the ‘new cold war’ atmosphere between China and the U.S. has changed the stakes,” said Professor Yinan He of Lehigh University.
“Personal identity in the public eye is increasingly centered on national loyalty, reducing tolerance for ‘deviance’ or dual identities”.
Earlier this week, Gu said she felt like she was “skiing with the weight of two countries on my shoulders” after losing to Switzerland in the women’s slopestyle competition.
While some supporters saw it as a vulnerable moment, it appeared to once again anger her critics. Some took offense to her, claiming the “weight” of America was on her: “She represents a country, not ours.”
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Soon, many netizens began comparing her to Alyssa Liu, an athlete who came back this year and won a gold medal for the U.S. figure skating team.
Liu Xiang wins gold medal in Olympic figure skating team competition [Getty Images]
The 20-year-old is the daughter of Arthur Liu, who fled China in 1989 after taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests. This student-led pro-democracy movement ended with a brutal massacre in Beijing. The topic remains taboo in China, and any mention of it is quickly censored.
Her family history may partly explain why there aren’t many posts about Liu on Chinese social media. Those who praise her usually comment below, such as: “Why do you praise this person? Her whole family is anti-China.”
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Raised by his father, Liu grew up in California and started skiing at a young age. At age 13, she became the youngest athlete ever to win the U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Championship.
In 2019, Arthur Liu claimed he was the target of an espionage operation that the Justice Department said was ordered by the Chinese government. His daughter said FBI agents told her in 2022 that she and her family were believed to be under surveillance by the Chinese government.
Her father’s background, and the possibility that her family might have been targeted as a result, certainly won Liu’s sympathy and admiration. This in turn appears to have intensified criticism of Gu.
Professor He said the divide between Li and Gu was not just about “nationalism, but class and relevance. Gu represents a culture of luxury – private school, Stanford. From that perspective, her choice to compete for China is often seen as a ‘mercenary business decision,'” he explained.
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In fact, the nonprofit Free Asia posted on
Rivalry between U.S. and China fuels comparisons between two athletes [Getty Images]
“All of this plays into how the media and the public understand Liu and Gu, who are seen as good immigrants and bad immigrants, respectively,” said Professor Richard King of Columbia College Chicago.
Badiucao, a Chinese-Australian dissident artist known for his anti-Chinese Communist Party content, recently posted paintings of athletes. One of the photos showed Liu in front of a tank in Tiananmen, alluding to her father’s radicalism; another showed Gu holding a Chinese flag with what appeared to be a body underneath, a thinly veiled allusion to the accusations against Beijing.
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The Daily Caller, a far-right news and opinion website founded by political commentator Tucker Carlson, went a step further and published an article titled “Meet Gu Ailin, the Real Villain of the Winter Olympics.”
Professor Stanley Tangaraji of Stonehill College said the incident also exposed “the extremely unstable social and political landscape that Asian Americans must navigate.” They are “recognized only in a limited way, and any political action immediately disconnects them from the United States.”
When prominent Asian Americans tried to defend Gu Kailai — Marvel actor Simu Liu posted that he was “so proud” of her, calling her “inspiring, resilient, smart, and bilingual” — he also faced immediate backlash, with comments asking him to “go back to China.”
As the Olympics continue in Milan, the sport itself appears to have become an afterthought in discussions between the two athletes.
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“Despite their similar ethnic backgrounds and first-generation immigrant experiences, the two athletes were cast as opposing archetypes in narratives they did not write,” Professor Ho said.
