The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan are in full swing, with Chinese-American figure skater Meixian Liu and skier Ailing Gu attracting attention. Liu is representing the United States, while Gu is representing China. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance expressed his opinion on Gu Ailing’s decision to represent China instead of the United States during an interview on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha McCallum” program.
Vance admitted that he “doesn’t know what Gu Ailing’s qualification ‘should’ be.” But he stated that he hopes American citizens can choose to compete for the United States on the world stage. “I don’t know what her qualifications should be, I think that ultimately depends on the Olympic Committee, I won’t comment recklessly,” Vance said.
“I certainly think that as someone who grew up in the United States, benefited from our education system, enjoying freedom and rights (which make the United States a great country), one would want to represent the US in competition. So, I will support American athletes, I believe part of the reason is that they identify themselves as Americans. This is why I support the athletes in this Olympics,” the Vice President said.
Gu Ailing’s decision to represent China in this Winter Olympics has been met with criticism from the international community, especially Americans. She had also represented China in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Gu Ailing grew up in California, graduated from Stanford University, and her mother is a first-generation Chinese immigrant. Her freestyle skiing career has been commercially successful from the start. This American-born star had previously represented the United States in international competitions, winning gold at the 2019 Freestyle Skiing World Cup. However, starting in June of the same year, Gu Ailing suddenly chose to represent China. At the current Milan Winter Olympics, at the age of 22, she is once again representing China.
When she decided to represent China in 2019, she said it was an “extremely difficult” decision, given the geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, Americans did not particularly agree with her decision.
In a December 2025 report on the world’s highest-earning female athletes published in Forbes magazine, Gu Ailing ranked fourth, following tennis players Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, and Iga Światek.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Gu Ailing and another American-born figure skater, Zhu Yi (now representing China), received a total of 6.6 million dollars from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports in 2025, to “strive for excellent results in the qualification matches for the 2026 Milan Winter Olympics.”
In early 2025, the financial budget of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports was inadvertently revealed, providing 48.148 million yuan (approximately 6.6 million dollars) in training support funds for American skiers Gu Ailing and figure skater Zhu Yi, additionally it was revealed that just in 2023, Gu Ailing alone received more than 47 million yuan in training fees.
In comparison, 20-year-old figure skater Meixian Liu was born in Richmond, California in 2005. Her father, Liu Jun, took part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and settled in the US in the 1990s under political asylum status. She became one of the most prominent US athletes during the first week of the Winter Olympics. On February 8, her American team won the gold medal in the team figure skating event, and on February 17, in the women’s singles short program competition, Liu Meixian secured the third position with a steady performance.
Gu Ailing has never publicly criticized China’s alleged human rights violations, including the systemic repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang by the Chinese Communist Party, and the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai. However, during this Winter Olympics, her criticism of the US President’s statements has drawn skepticism and criticism from Americans, who feel that she has never dared to speak out on China’s domestic human rights issues and is now openly criticizing the US president while being a Chinese athlete.
At the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, she won two silver medals in the freestyle skiing events, including slopestyle and big air. She has one more event to go, the halfpipe competition, scheduled for Saturday.
In the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing won a total of two gold and one silver medals in three events.