During the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Alysa Liu made history by securing the first Olympic gold for women’s ice skating after a twenty year drought.
The twenty year old ice skater dazzled the audience with her nearly effortless performance in the Milan Cortina games, an easy smile on her lips throughout the entire show.
“I think my favorite thing about Alysaliu’s performance was the sheer amount of passion she has for the sport.” said Junior Scott Truong.
“Figure skating is really hard, it makes it really hard to love it but the way you can see her passion is absolutely beautiful.” Troung added. “I met her a few years ago when I still skated and she is an incredibly talented and a wonderful person that every athlete should strive to be like because of her intense love and passion for the sport.”
Liu ended with a total score of 226.79 placing her on the podium along with Japanese skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
Following a two year retirement when Liu had chosen to distance herself from the sport that had begun to take a toll on her mental health and focused on herself instead.
Alysa Liu had begun skating at the age of five, being urged on by her father who was a fan of the ice skater, Michelle Kwan. At the age of seven, Liu began to compete nationally. When she was thirteen, she broke the record as the youngest U.S. Women’s National Champion in 2019.
Liu had been noted for her technical skill, being one of the few American women ice skaters to land jumps such as the quadruple jump and the triple axel in competitions.
However, in 2022 at the age of 16, Alysa Liu announced her retirement due to issues such as mental health struggles, loneliness, and burnout.
“Her retirement was understandable honestly, because she’d been doing a very draining job for a long time in her childhood.” acknowledged Sophomore Saanvi Pougat, “She was just tired.”
During those two years away from the sport, Liu chose to continue studying psychology at UCLA. However, during a skiing trip, Liu rediscovered her love for skating and decided to compete at the Olympics once more.
Reconnecting with her coaches, Liu insisted that she would have greater creative freedom with her choreography, costume design, and other artistic choices.
She approached this Olympics with a different mindset, saying at an interview with a reporter,“I don’t think about that. Whether I beat them [the Japanese ice skaters] or not is not my goal. My goal is just to do my program and share my story. And I don’t need to be over or under anyone to do that.”
In addition to a changed mindset, Alysa Liu had also dyed her hair with rings to symbolize every year she had spent ice skating, similar to tree rings.
“She comes back with even more energy and like a want to come back to skating, not in the ‘I have to win’ but more like ‘I just missed doing this’ kind of way. It’s just such an inspirational thing and her entire performance incorporates all of that.” Continued Saanvi Phougat.
Her appearance and mentality inspired watchers across the world who worked to adopt the “Alysa Liu” mentality where one focuses more on their passion rather than the titles and prestige it can offer.