Alysa Liu arrived at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan with roughly 210,000 Instagram followers. She left Sunday night with two gold medals, 3.7 million followers, and the same answer she’s always given when the world tries to tell her who she should be: thanks, but no thanks.
At the Closing Ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games, Liu confirmed that her Olympic run is not the end of the road. When NBC asked whether she was considering retirement after a flawless Games, her answer was immediate. “I have no plans to leave yet. I can’t imagine not skating next year.” Her coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, said the team’s focus turns immediately to the World Championships in Prague on March 21, where Liu will attempt to defend her world title — and that they may have to ask rink management in Oakland to close the facility when she trains because of the attention she has received.
The contrast with where Liu stood four years ago is striking. At 16 in Beijing, she was burned out and done with the sport she’d given her whole childhood to. She walked away, took time to figure out who she was outside of skating, and rebuilt herself into something better. Now, at 20, the sport is no longer a job. “I just feel so lucky I get to do this,” she told NBC. “I love being an athlete. It’s the coolest thing in the world.”
When a reporter at the post-gold press conference asked how she planned to handle “superstardom,” Liu’s response was characteristically grounded. “I kind of don’t want to be,” she said, before joking that she planned to wear wigs when going out in public. She quickly turned serious, adding that she hopes the attention helps raise awareness about mental health in sports. “Taking breaks is OK,” she told USA Today. “Sometimes taking a step back is what’s needed to see the full picture.”
DiGuglielmo said people are already telling Liu she could skate four more years and compete at another Olympics. Whether that happens remains to be seen. But for the first time in her career, the possibility doesn’t feel like a burden. It feels like a choice — her choice, made on her own terms, the same way she’s made every choice that mattered.
She doesn’t want to be famous. She just wants to be Alysa. As it turns out, that’s more than enough.
Quotes sourced from NBC Olympics and USA Today.