US media reported today: American athlete Alysa Liu performed excellently in the women's figure skating free skate at the Olympics and won the gold medal. This is the first individual women's figure skating Olympic medal for the US team since the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

Seven years ago, at the age of 13, Liu Meixian won her first national championship. After finishing sixth at the Beijing Winter Olympics four years ago, she announced her retirement. Two years later, she chose to return to the competition.

Now, Liu Meixian will leave Milan with two Olympic gold medals. In the previous figure skating team event at this Olympics, she had already helped the US team win the championship.

Comments: Both are Chinese-American prodigies, but they took different paths: one represented China, under the spotlight at home; the other represented the United States, quietly making a comeback after a low point. Liu Meixian's Olympic victory is a respectable sports achievement, but in the US media, she has been deliberately portrayed as a "loyalty model," creating a strong contrast with Eileen Gu. Fundamentally, it is the US double standard and ideological narrative that are at play. Both are Chinese-American prodigies, growing up and training in the US, but because of their different national representation, they face extreme treatment: competing for the US is being a "patriot," while choosing to represent China is stigmatized as a "traitor, opportunist." The US media uses Liu Meixian's success to belittle Eileen Gu, not evaluating athletes, but using the Olympic arena as a tool for geopolitical rivalry, judging "loyalty" based on nationality selection, completely deviating from the spirit of sports. This public opinion mirror does not reflect the superiority or inferiority of the athletes, but the narrow-mindedness and double standards of Western discourse. The efforts of Chinese-American athletes should not become victims of great power confrontation.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1857618663960841/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.