After stepping away from competitive skating in 2022, Alysa Liu returned to the ice two years later. She won gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, giving the United States its first women’s singles title in figure skating in 24 years. The last American woman to win an individual Olympic gold in figure skating was Sarah Hughes in 2002.
The 20-year-old American figure skater dazzled the crowd at the Milan Cortina Games on Thursday. Liu started the free skate competition in third place but soared to first after an electrifying performance. Exuding joy, confidence and precision, she flawlessly landed jump after jump in her Donna Summer–themed free skate.
Liu’s gold-winning performance also ended a 20-year Olympic individual medal drought for American women in figure skating. The previous medal was Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006.
Alysa Liu of the United States celebrates with the gold medal in the women’s free skate.Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
(Katie Stratman-Imagn Images)
Liu won two gold medals at the Milan Cortina Games. She earned her first gold on Feb. 8 in the team event, where her incredible short program skate helped Team USA win.
However, her first gold celebration was marred by an unexpected mishap. While the team celebrated and posed for photos, Liu jumped for joy, and the medal she was wearing suddenly detached from its ribbon. It caused the medal to fall and sustain dents and scratches.
The figure skating star later shared a video on Instagram showing the damaged medal. In a recent interview, Liu was asked about the incident. The Bay Area native revealed that she returned the medal to Olympics officials.
“Oh yeah, yeah, it broke off the ribbon,” she said. “They replaced it because apparently you have to wear it for media day.”
“It’s not the [original]. … This is a whole new one. They were like, ‘Give me your other medal.’”
Liu was not the only American Olympian to experience medal mishaps. Alpine skier Breezy Johnson, the women’s downhill gold medalist, and figure skater Evan Bates, a gold medalist in the team event, also encountered similar problems.
Olympic organizers immediately launched an investigation after learning that some medals were coming apart. Within days, a fix was announced, but officials have not disclosed the details. They just asked athletes with medals that had manufacturing defects or accidental damage to return them for repair or replacement.
“Milano Cortina 2026 confirms its commitment to ensuring that the medals, which symbolise the highest achievement in every athlete’s career, meet the highest standards of quality and attention to detail,” said Milan Cortina 2026 Communications Director Luca Casassa.
MILAN — As she skated around the Assago Ice Skating Arena rink, moments before the most important routine of her life, Alysa Liu caught sight of her teammate Amber Glenn near the kiss-and-cry couch. Glenn, devastated after Tuesday night’s program, had skated a spectacular routine of her own nearly two hours before. As Liu drew close, she gave Glenn a congratulatory thumbs-up.
“What are you doing?” an exasperated Glenn replied. “Go skate!”
So Alysa Liu did. And she won herself a gold medal, smiling all the way.
There are no record books to measure such things, but it’s entirely possible that no Olympian has ever smiled as much as Liu did on Thursday night, executing a brilliant, virtually flawless free skate that vaulted her from third place into first. She smiled when she stepped onto the ice, she smiled when she spotted Glenn, she smiled through her lutzes and loops and salchows, she smiled when she pointed her left finger to the sky to close out her routine. And she smiled — and giggled a triumphant laugh — when she skated right up to the rinkside camera and bellowed, “That’s what I’m f***ing talking about!”
That is the entire breadth of the Alysa Liu experience — giddiness, confidence, joy, serenity — and gold-medal-winning talent. At an Olympics where so many others have crumbled under the pressure, she literally laughed in pressure’s face.
“She’s not like us,” her coach Phillip DiGuglielmo said, beaming in the afterglow of her victory. “The rest of us here would be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m nervous. I can’t do this. I have a million voices in my head.’ She has one voice in her head and it says, ‘I got this.’”
“The feelings I felt out there were calm, happy, confident,” she said after coming off the ice, drawing out pauses between each word. “Of course I had fun. But I’ve been having fun all the time.”
Alysa Liu won a second gold medal Thursday at the Milan Cortina Olympics and celebrated like only she can.
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
Her story remains a remarkable one: a champion at the intermediate, junior and national levels from 2016-20, she made the 2022 Olympic team … and then decided she was done with skating. Completely, thoroughly, slam-the-door done. She enrolled in classes at UCLA, she spent time with friends, she traveled the world … all parts of a normal life denied to competitive figure skaters.
Somewhere along the line, though, she decided to come back to skating, decided that this was the way she could best express her abundance of ideas, in fields far from the ice. Get her started talking about music or fashion or choreography, and she’s likely to spiral off in giddy delight about her latest inspiration or creation.
“I think I have a beautiful life story, and I feel really lucky,” Liu said. “I’m glad that a lot of people are now watching me so I can show them everything I’ve come up with in my brain.”
Milan 2026 Winter Olympics Medal Count
Rank
Country
G
S
B
Total
1
Norway
18
12
11
41
2
United States
12
12
9
33
3
Italy
10
6
14
30
4
Germany
8
10
8
26
5
Japan
5
7
12
24
Liu rediscovered a love of skating, and skating loved her back. In short order, she rose from retirement to world champion to, now, Olympic gold medalist — the first American woman to win an individual gold medal since 2002.
“I 100 percent believe that if she had not stepped away, she would not be here right now,” DiGuglielmo said. “Giving her that break — not just stepping away, she shut the door — her body got healthier, her mind …. was sparked, all those things that make you into the person you are.”
What’s most remarkable about Liu is this: for an Olympian, she’s remarkably unfazed by the Olympics themselves. She visualizes something larger, something beyond the Olympic stage, which is truly an achievement given that she’s still 20.
“I don’t need this,” she said, holding up her gold medal. “What I needed was the stage. And I got that. So I was all good, no matter what happened. If I fell on every jump,” she said smiling, “I would still be wearing this dress.”
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