The 2026 Winter Olympics have arrived with many different events like ice hockey, curling, snowboarding, skiing, and ice skating. Two young women share a heritage but represent two entirely different Chinese American lives: Eileen Gu and Alysa Feng Liu.
Both athletes were born in California: with Alysa growing up in Clovis, while Eileen was raised in San Francisco. Alysa is 20 years old, while Eileen is two years older. Alysa and Eileen were raised by single Chinese parents and navigated the complexities of immigrant expectations from day one. Eileen’s mother, Yan Gu, was a former ski instructor from Beijing who moved to the U.S. to pursue an MBA at Stanford. Eileen grew up in the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco, attending elite private schools and spending every summer in Beijing. By contrast, Alysa was raised by her father, Arthur Liu, who was a political refugee who fled China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Her father, a lawyer in Oakland, raised Alysa and her four siblings (all born via surrogacy).
It’s easy to look at Eileen Gu’s $23 million in annual earnings and see only the brand, but that ignores the athlete. She didn’t just pick up skiing; she dominated it through sheer force of will. She started at three and was winning national titles by nine years old. At the 2026 Winter Games, she proved her “most decorated” title isn’t just marketing, as she battled through a punishing schedule with no rest days, competed in three different finals, and walked away with a gold medal in halfpipe and two silver medals. Additionally, she revealed she learned of her grandmother’s death just after her gold-medal run, which is a testament to toughness.
Alysa Liu’s career has been more of a human rollercoaster. She was a prodigy, as she became the youngest U.S. champion ever at 13, but she experienced burnout from her intense childhood fame. She walked away at just 16 to try being a “normal” teenager, enrolling at UCLA and finding a life outside the rink. Her comeback for the 2026 Games wasn’t about fame; it was about reclaiming her joy and love for that sport. Winning individual gold in Milan—the first for an American woman in 24 years—felt like her personal victory. She wasn’t there because she had to be; she was there because she chose to be.
Despite their talent, they’ve become symbols in a “Proxy War” for national identity. For example, Eileen Gu received names like “traitor,” arguing that she has essentially sold her American nationality in exchange for money. Gu was comfortable leveraging her American-born right to criticize a U.S. president, yet she remained conspicuously silent regarding the Chinese government. This made many people upset, since China does not allow dual citizenship; therefore, Eileen Gu was criticized as a “gold-digger.”
Alysa, on the other hand, is called the “Patriot.” Because her dad fled the Tiananmen Square crackdown, her very existence is a sensitive topic in China. While Eileen is the “Snow Princess” on Chinese social media, Alysa is mostly ignored or called “anti-China” by trolls.
Ultimately, Eileen Gu and Alysa Liu are two sides of the same coin. They share the same nationality of Wasian American, and yet experience different realities. We can argue about their loyalties and their paychecks, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they are two young women who have sacrificed their childhoods to be the best in the world. Whether they are wearing “USA” or “China” on their jackets, their success is built on a level of talent that most of us can not compete with.
