Olympic gold medalist Alyssa Liu has stepped into the spotlight beyond the ice rink, publicly defending her father’s past as a participant in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests following questions raised about their backgrounds.
Liu captivated audiences at the 2026 Winter Olympics, claiming gold medals in both the team and singles figure skating events. But in the days following her triumph, she took to Instagram to address critics, expressing pride in her father’s stand against the Chinese government decades ago. “People shouldn’t speak on a topic they don’t understand,” she wrote.
Her father fled China after the government’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, a tragedy in which hundreds of protesters were killed. The family’s difficulties with Chinese authorities did not end upon arriving in the United States — in 2022, ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the Lius reported being subjected to surveillance by Chinese government operatives.
“They are probably just trying to intimidate us,” her father said at the time, adding that the goal appeared to be discouraging the family from speaking out about human rights abuses in China. He credited U.S. authorities with keeping his daughter safe during that period.
Liu’s story has drawn inevitable comparisons to freestyle skier Eileen Gu, an American-born, Stanford-educated athlete who has competed under the Chinese flag since 2019. The contrast has attracted commentary from senior U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, who stated he would hope that athletes who grew up in America and benefited from its opportunities would choose to represent the United States in international competition.
