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≡ THE ROSEN REPORT ≡
MILAN, Italy – Alysa Liu brought the fun back to U.S. figure skating, punctuating a dynamic Olympic performance by pointing toward the sky and flipping her ponytail at center ice.
Pressure? What’s that?
“The feelings I felt out there were calm, happy and confident,” she said. “Of course I had fun. But I’ve been having fun all the time. This experience is really cool, and the past two nights, I got to see my siblings and my friends, had dinner with them. It was super fun.”
Wearing a gold dress that matched the gold stripes in her two-toned hair, Liu further accessorized with the first gold medal by an American woman since Sarah Hughes in 2002 and the first medal of any kind since Sasha Cohen‘s silver in 2006. That drought had been felt keenly in light of 17 U.S. medals – seven gold – from 1956-2006.
“I don’t need this,” Liu said, “but 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, I would still be wearing this dress. So it’s all good.”
The 20-year-old Californian didn’t fall on any jump, the dress twirling exquisitely. And Liu posted the highest score in the Free Skate (a season-best of 150.20) to move from third place following the Short Program to first. She leapfrogged over Japan’s three-time World Champion Kaori Sakamoto, who remained in second place and 17-year-old Ami Nakai, who led the Short Program, but fell to third following a flawed Free Skate.
Liu made sure the crowd at the Milano Ice Skating Arena was enjoying her routine as much as she was. Liu smiled as she landed difficult jumps to the beat of Donna Summer‘s rendition of “MacArthur Park.” She also showed off the mouth piercing – which she did herself – and calls her “smiley.”
Fellow skaters watching the competition from their seats near the rafters clapped along loudly. When Liu was finished, she had to wait in a white armchair while the two Japanese skaters took the ice. She couldn’t keep a poker face, still smiling, and then jumped out of her chair to chat with teammate Amber Glenn until an official made her sit down again. When the final scores were announced and Liu realized she won, Glenn said, “She was in disbelief.”
Liu even skated out for the victory ceremony and made a hand gesture like, “Who would have thought?”
While IOC president Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) awarded her the gold medal, fellow U.S. Olympic champions Dorothy Hamill (1976), Brian Boitano (1988) and Kristi Yamaguchi (1992) stood together at the railing and held up their phones to record the moment like two proud aunts and an uncle.
And to think Liu retired after her first Olympic experience in 2022, where she finished sixth. About 18 months ago, she was ready to return on her terms, culminating with an Olympic gold medal (actually two counting the team competition).
Liu also won the first medal by a U.S. woman in singles since Sasha Cohen took silver 20 years ago. She had already broken a world championships drought in 2025 when she won the first gold at the event since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
Nathan Chen, the 2022 Olympic men’s champion, told The Sports Examiner on the eve of the competition, “The thing that’s so cool about her is that she has no pressure. She doesn’t think about or conceptualize pressure in the way that I do. She’s just out there to have fun and really enjoy the experience. And as a result, the best performances come out of that.
“I think that she has a really golden opportunity to look back at this experience and say, ‘I just had the best time of my life.'”
Liu would probably agree that’s the case. As she held court with the media following the Free Skate, she bounced up and down while answering questions.
“No matter what happens in my life, I think I have a beautiful life story,” she said, “and I feel really lucky and I’m glad that a lot of people are now watching me so I can show them everything that I’ve come up with in my brain, share my stories. I want to be a storyteller of sorts.”
Liu’s father, Arthur, fled China for a better life in the U.S. Alysa started skating at age 5 and was a national champion as a cute-as-a-button 13-year-old.
While Chen was finding redemption in Beijing following a below-expectations showing at his first Games in 2018, Liu was losing her love of the sport.
“I am grateful for both Olympic experiences,” Liu said, “but I feel like I am more gracious now because I have stuff that I want to share and I want to be here. And I think that’s the difference from last time.”
She likes being here so much she’d like to stay longer. “I wish there was another event we could do,” Liu said. “I want to be out there more.”
Well, there is the “gala” on Saturday. “I have a program that I really am excited to show,” Liu said. “It’s a really cool dress, unlike any dress I have, so I’m super stoked for that.”
She knows that all eyes will be on her as the new Olympic women’s champion. The message she would share, Liu said, “I guess it’s doing stuff that people tell you that you shouldn’t do. I’ve been doing a lot of that.”
She also advises people to find a really good team, like her two coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, and her family and friends, who she said, “bring me joy.”
Liu joins an exclusive club of U.S. female figure skating championships that started 70 years ago with Tenley Albright (1956) and includes Carol Heiss (1960), Peggy Fleming (1968), Hamill, Yamaguchi, Tara Lipinski – an NBC commentator for the Milan competition – and Hughes.
“I’m really honored and they are incredible athletes,” Liu said. “Incredible athletes get these medals …. So, I’m just so grateful to be an athlete. I really love this life.”
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