Killing the goose that lays the gold medalBy Nancy QianThe Olympic Games have always been about more than sports, with the medal count serving as a measure of national vitality. Although immigrants bring talent and ambition, they also might compete for jobs or disseminate US-acquired knowledge abroad. For decades, the US has crowded the podium with the children of immigrants: Michelle Kwan (關穎珊, silver, 1998; bronze, 2002), Sasha Cohen (silver, 2006), Mirai Nagasu (bronze, 2018, team), Nathan Chen (陳巍, gold, 2022), and, this year, Ilia Malinin (gold, team) and Alysa Liu (劉美賢, gold). For example, the speed skater Apolo Ohno (gold, 2002, 2006; eight medals total) has a Japanese-born father, and snowboarder Chloe Kim (gold, 2018; gold, 2022; silver, 2026) is the daughter of South Korean immigrants. The list grows longer still if one includes champions descended from earlier waves of migration, such as Polish-American Tara Lipinski (gold, 1998) and Japanese-American Kristi Yamaguchi (gold, 1992).

Source: Taipei Times February 24, 2026 17:44 UTC