“I don’t need this,” said Alysa Liu. “What I needed was the stage, and I got that, so I was all good. No matter what happened.”
Alysa Liu came to the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics with the intention of showing her true self on the ice, and anything beyond this was simply a bonus. Now, she will leave Italy with two gold medals.
Liu’s return to figure skating was not one based on a desire to win, but one based on wanting to share her creativity and art with the world. The California comeback kid’s carefree attitude, along with her alternative style, made her one of the fan-favorites going into the women’s single skating.
The favorite to win Olympic gold was Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, and she upheld this following the short program, sitting in second place. Sakamoto’s teammate, Ami Nakai, was first for the short program with a 78.71. At this point in the competition, Liu was in third, scoring a 76.59 for her short program. She then delivered a powerful free skate performance, scoring a 150.20 for a final score of 226.79.
Liu has a dramatic start to her career, becoming the youngest national champion at 13-years-old. She then reached the Olympics at age 16, but later retired after a third-place finish at the world championships in 2022. Liu returned to the sport after a family ski trip.
Liu began her comeback in the 2024-2025 season, recruiting her former coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, to help her. The team never set goals of winning or increasing scores, but a goal of creating a place for her to share her creativity and create amazing memories. Liu was back, but this time everything was on her terms, and she had the final say in everything.
Clearly, this creativity-driven comeback allowed Liu to achieve something beyond her goals, something she was not even focusing her energy on. Liu is the first U.S. woman since 2002 to win gold in the women’s single competition.
Liu cut ties with her sport, and within her journey to love it again, she ended Team USA’s 24-year gold medal drought.
