There’s a moment — you probably felt it too — when Alysa Liu struck her final pose inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Thursday night and the crowd simply roared. Not politely. Not appreciatively. But with the kind of full-throated, standing-on-your-seat eruption that tells you something rare just happened. Something you’ll want to remember.
She’d just skated her “MacArthur Park Suite” free program — a Donna Summer medley she’s had in her back pocket since last season — and she’d skated it like someone who genuinely, deeply loves to be alive on the ice. Triple lutz. Triple salchow. Triple loop. Ear-to-ear smile from start to finish, that signature raccoon-striped ponytail flying behind her. The crowd got louder with every clean landing, and Alysa Liu absorbed every decibel of it. She later described her feelings on the ice as “calm, happy and confident.” Which, if you’ve been following this journey, sounds exactly right. That’s not a performance. That’s who she is.
Liu finished with a 226.79 total score — a 150.20 free skate score and a 76.59 short program score — a season best on the free skate. She edged out Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto (224.90) and Ami Nakai (219.16) for the gold. Coming into Thursday’s free skate, Liu was sitting in third place after Tuesday’s short program, behind both Japanese skaters. That’s the kind of position that can unnerve an athlete. It didn’t unnerve Alysa Liu. She took less than a two-point lead over Sakamoto, a beautiful and veteran three-time world champion whose Edith Piaf program was a masterclass in elegance — but a few small errors on her jumps made all the difference. The result is historic. Liu is the first American female skater to win an individual medal at the Olympics since Sasha Cohen won bronze at Torino in 2006, and the first to win gold since Sarah Hughes at Salt Lake City in 2002. Sarah Hughes herself was reportedly in the audience Thursday, watching her successor claim that gold. Twenty-four years is a long drought. It’s over now.
To fully appreciate what happened in Milan tonight, you have to go back to 2022. Alysa Liu was 16 years old at the Beijing Olympics, finished sixth in the individual event, and then — in a move that stunned the skating world — she retired. At 16. She walked away from elite competition at an age when most skaters are still finding their footing. Then, in 2024, she came back. On her own terms. She calls it “round two” for herself in the sport — one in which she’s taken full artistic control over what she does on the ice. She won the 2025 U.S. World Championship, breaking a 19-year drought for American women on that stage. And she arrived in Milan not as someone chasing validation, but as someone with something genuine to express. “I am grateful for both Olympic experiences but I feel like I am more gracious now because I have stuff that I want to share, and I want to be here,” she said. That’s not a talking point. That’s a person who did the inner work.
One of the most striking things about following Alysa Liu this season has been watching an athlete operate almost entirely outside the anxiety that normally surrounds elite competition. Before Thursday’s free skate, she told reporters: “I really don’t feel nervous. I don’t feel the pressure. There’s nothing holding me down or holding me back. I invite it all in.” And after her win? “I don’t need this,” she said, referring to the gold medal. “But what I needed was the stage, and I got that, so I was all good no matter what happened.” “Nothing compares to the journey. This is a physical object,” she said, holding up the medal. “One day I could just lose it, but my memories — I hold those really precious.” It would be easy to read that as detachment, but it’s the opposite. It’s someone so deeply connected to why she skates that the outcome, however golden, is almost beside the point. She came back for the feeling. She got the feeling. The medal followed.
Liu wasn’t the only American to leave the arena with her head held high on Thursday. Amber Glenn, who had come into the free skate in 13th place after a costly doubled loop in the short program, delivered a redemptive performance that moved her all the way to fifth overall. She nailed a triple axel, though she had to catch herself after nearly falling during her final loop, scoring 147.52 for a total of 214.91. “I’m so proud of the resilience I showed. It has not been easy. I have had so many things standing in my way,” Glenn said afterward. Fifth place doesn’t begin to capture the spirit of what she put on the ice tonight. Isabeau Levito, 18, competing in her first Olympics, had one fall but otherwise skated a lovely program. She’ll be back.
When the final score for Japan’s Ami Nakai was announced — confirming Liu had won — the first thing she did wasn’t pump her fist or scream. She ran over to Nakai and lifted her off the ground, cheering and congratulating the 17-year-old bronze medalist on her debut senior season. That one moment says everything you need to know about Alysa Liu. She quit social media after a wave of ugly attacks — against her family’s background, her ethnicity, her appearance. She has made it very clear she lives on her own terms now and does not care what anyone thinks about her hair, her piercings, or anything else that brings the vibe down. And on Thursday, in a glittery gold dress that proved to be exactly the right wardrobe choice, she skated exactly as herself and ended up on top of the world.
This is what it looks like when someone competes from a place of joy rather than fear. Take note. This one’s going in the memory bank.
Alysa Liu is the 2026 Olympic champion. She is 20 years old. She is just getting started.