Alysa Liu Wins Olympic Figure Skating Gold, First for US Women in 24 Years

Liu, who briefly retired after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, hails from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gold medalist Alysa Liu of Team United States poses on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women's Single Skating on day 13 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 19, 2026. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

American figure skater Alysa Liu on Feb. 19 emerged victorious in the Olympics, winning the United States’ first Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating since 2002, defeating Japanese skaters Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai at the Milan Cortina Games.

Liu, 20, hails from the San Francisco Bay Area and returned to competitive ice skating after retiring after the Beijing Olympics in 2022 because of burnout. She earned a career-high 226.79 points.

“I’m really confident in myself,” she said in the days ahead of the event. “Even if I mess up and fall that’s totally okay, too. I’m fine with any outcome as long as I’m out there, so there’s nothing to lose.”

Liu’s victory is the first for Team USA in women’s figure skating since Sarah Hughes won gold at Salt Lake City 2002.

Liu wore a gold-sequined dress, with blue ribbons and symbolic golden hair streaks representing personal growth, during a routine to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park,” starting with an opening trip flip to a closing combination.

“I’m so honoured to have this and be alongside the people who have won it in the past,“ Liu told Olympics.com on Feb. 19. ”They’re incredible; it’s crazy that I have the same thing they do now. ... I’m so happy with the way I skated today. The crowd was incredible, and the skate went exactly how I wanted it to.”

Sakamoto won the silver medal with 224.90 points. Nakai captured bronze with 219.16.

U.S. teammate Amber Glenn placed fifth with 214.91, and Isabeau Levito placed eighth.

“I validate myself, and I can completely do that alone,” Liu told U.S. Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport, earlier this week. “So medals, they don’t make me feel greater than I am, or more than other people.”

“I don’t need a medal,” Liu told reporters on Tuesday. “I just need to be here, and I just need to be present, and I need people to see what I do next.”

Liu became the youngest U.S. champion at age 13 in 2019 and finished in 6th place in the women’s singles event in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Her father, Arthur Liu, fled China in the 1990s over his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

“Obviously, it will be impossible for me to allow my daughter to compete on behalf of the Chinese government when the Chinese government is still abusing the basic human rights of the Chinese people,” Arthur Liu told “China in Focus,” a program of NTD, sister media of The Epoch Times, from Milan on Feb. 18.

“So I mean, if China becomes a democracy and has respect for human rights and has a legitimate, fair legal system, I have no problems. I love China. I want to make it clear, I love China. I love the Chinese people.”

In March 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against five individuals for allegedly engaging in a transnational repression plot against critics of the Chinese regime. Arthur Liu was one of their targets. He says his daughter was also listed as a target in the complaint as a “family member.”

“We believed Alysa had a very good chance of making the Olympic team and truly were very scared,” Arthur Liu told The Associated Press in 2022.

He added that he has accepted that this is his life after speaking up against the Chinese communist regime.

“And I know the Chinese government will extend their long hands into any corner in the world,” Arthur Liu said at the time. “I’m going to continue to enjoy life and live life as I want to live. I’m not going to let this push me down, and I’m not going to let them succeed.”