Alysa Liu arrived in Milan Cortina as a reigning world champion who had already walked away from figure skating once, only to return with unfinished business. Her gold medal in women’s singles completed a comeback that restored Team USA to the top of the Olympic podium in the event for the first time in 24 years and rewrote expectations for what an American teenager could do under pressure.
The performance that sealed the title was not simply a clean skate but a career peak, capped by a total of 226.79 points and a surge past a deep international field. After years of questions about her future, Liu answered with a free skate that mixed technical firepower with unforced joy, turning a personal journey through retirement and return into one of the defining stories of these Winter Games.
The night Alysa Liu changed U.S. figure skating
The women’s free skate in Milan Cortina unfolded as a showdown between precision and nerve, and Alysa Liu owned both. Skating for Team USA in the final group, she needed to overturn a narrow deficit from the short program and did it with a program that combined high difficulty with unshakable composure, lifting her overall total to 226.79. That score vaulted Liu into first place ahead of Mone Chiba and Amber Glenn of the United States, who both skated well but could not match the cumulative base value and execution she stacked across her elements. By the time the final competitor finished, the numbers on the scoreboard confirmed what the building already sensed: the Olympic title belonged to a 20-year-old Californian who had once questioned whether she wanted to compete at all.
Liu’s victory ended a drought that had stretched back to Salt Lake City, making her the first American woman in 24 years to win Olympic gold in the individual event. The significance of that milestone rippled through the rink as she became the first American woman to claim the women’s singles crown since 2002, restoring Team USA to a position it had long ceded to Japanese and Russian stars. Her win also capped the final figure skating event of the Milan Cortina Olympics, with live updates chronicling how Team USA’s Alysa pulled away from the field and became, as one report put it, the first American to stand atop this podium in two decades for the United States at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
From early retirement to Olympic redemption
The scale of Liu’s achievement only makes sense against the backdrop of her early retirement. Less than four years ago, she stepped away from elite competition, a decision detailed in coverage that asked Why Alysa Liu. She had already been a national champion as a teenager, yet the grind of the sport and the scrutiny that came with her early success left her unsure whether the sacrifices still felt worthwhile. The break removed her from the Olympic cycle entirely and made a future on the biggest stage look unlikely, especially as other skaters filled the spotlight she once occupied.
Her return began quietly, with training blocks that focused on rebuilding strength and rediscovering enjoyment rather than chasing scores. Over two years, that reset evolved into a full-scale comeback that culminated in her arrival at the 2026 Winter Olympics as a legitimate medal favorite. One account of her journey framed the gold as a triumph two years in the making, describing how Liu methodically worked back to the top level and then delivered at exactly the right moment to win Olympic gold after. The narrative shifted from a prodigy who walked away to an athlete who chose her sport again on her own terms, and the result was a skater who looked more relaxed and more dangerous than ever.
A career-best performance under Olympic pressure
On the ice in Milan Cortina, Liu’s technical content matched the stakes. She arrived at the free skate already in contention after a short program score of 76.59, which placed her ahead of Mone Chiba of Japan at 74.00, Adeliia Petrosian of AIN at 72.89 and Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia at 71.77. That cushion mattered, but it did not guarantee anything in a field where a single jump error could reshuffle the podium. Liu responded with a free skate that analysts described as a career-best, combining clean triple jumps, difficult combinations and strong component scores to produce a competition total of 226.79 points.
That number did not exist in isolation. Liu surged past Kaori Sakamoto and Japanese teammate Ami Nakai, both of whom delivered strong skates but could not match her combined technical difficulty and execution. One detailed breakdown of the event noted that she became the first American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in figure skating in 24 years and that her final tally represented a career-best score of. In a sport where margins are often razor thin, Liu’s advantage reflected not only clean execution but a layout designed to squeeze every possible point from the scoring system without sacrificing the musicality that judges reward in the program components.
Joy, authenticity and a viral reaction
What separated Liu from many Olympic champions was not just the content of her skating but the way she carried herself in the most pressurized moments. As she waited for her scores, she grinned at the camera, waved and hopped out of the leader’s chair to chat with Glenn, a scene captured in coverage that emphasized how she Grinned and Hopped around the kiss-and-cry rather than sitting frozen in anxiety. When the numbers finally confirmed her as Olympic champion, Liu’s first instinct was not a rehearsed celebration but a spontaneous expletive that quickly went viral. Reports from the arena described how she dropped an F-bomb in disbelief, then laughed it off and explained later that she had simply been overwhelmed by the realization that the performance she liked so much had actually been enough to win.
Her reaction extended beyond the rink. Clips of Team USA’s new champion spread quickly on social media, including an Instagram reel that highlighted how Team USA’s Alysa as she won gold in the women’s figure skating, becoming the first American to win a gold medal in the event in 24 years. The footage showed a skater who looked more like a college student celebrating with friends than a tightly wound champion, which is fitting given that Liu is also a UCLA student whose campus life has run in parallel with her second act on the ice. That blend of elite performance and unfiltered personality resonated with fans who have grown up in an era where Olympic stars are expected to be both world class and relatable.
What Liu’s gold means for Team USA and the sport
Liu’s triumph carries implications that extend beyond her own resume. For Team USA, her win in Milan Cortina ended a 24-year wait and signaled that American women can again compete at the very top of Olympic figure skating. Official Olympic coverage framed the result as a breakthrough for Alysa Liu and, noting that she captured the country’s first women’s singles gold since Salt Lake City 2002 and did it with a performance that dazzled both judges and spectators. That kind of result can reshape funding priorities, inspire younger skaters and shift the balance of power in a discipline long dominated by other federations.
