Oakland Native Alysa Liu Wins Olympic Figure Skating Gold
Alysa Liu, an Oakland native and Fremont-raised athlete, won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The victory marks a significant achievement for the Bay Area athlete on the world stage.
- This victory marks the first time in 24 years that an American woman has won individual Olympic gold in figure skating, the last being Sarah Hughes in 2002. - Liu's win is the culmination of a remarkable comeback; she retired from the sport in 2022 at age 16 after the Beijing Olympics and a World bronze medal, citing burnout and a desire to live a normal life. - After two years away from the ice, during which she enrolled at UCLA, Liu announced her return to competition in 2024, taking more creative control over her programs and skating with a renewed sense of joy. - Her comeback season was highly successful, leading to a 2025 World Championship title—the first for a U.S. woman since 2006—positioning her as a top contender for the 2026 Games. - At the Milan Cortina Games, Liu was in third place after the short program and delivered a career-best, near-flawless free skate to earn a total score of 226.79, surpassing Japan's Kaori Sakamoto (silver) and Ami Nakai (bronze). - Earlier in her career, Liu was a prodigy who broke records, becoming the youngest-ever U.S. women's national champion at age 13 in 2019. - She made history as the first American woman to land a quadruple Lutz in competition and the first woman ever to land both a quad jump and a triple Axel in the same program. - This is Liu's second gold medal of the 2026 Games; she also contributed to the United States' victory in the team figure skating event earlier in the Olympics.
