Alysa Liu Wins Olympic Gold After Walking Away From Skating at 16

Alysa Liu finishing her short program at the 2022 World Figure
Skating Championships.Photo by Phantom Kabocha, licensed under CC BY 4.0
International via Wikimedia Commons

At 13, Alysa Liu became the youngest U.S. figure skating champion in
history. At 16, she walked away from the sport entirely after a
difficult 2022 Beijing Olympics. At 20, she stood on the top of the
podium at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games with an Olympic gold medal
around her neck — the first American woman to win figure skating gold
in 24 years.

The comeback wasn't loud. It wasn't heavily publicized. It was just
Alysa Liu, back on the ice, deciding she had more left to give.

The Retirement That Wasn't Final

Liu's exit from competitive skating after Beijing was real — she
enrolled at UC Berkeley and stepped away from the training schedules and
competitive pressure that had defined her entire childhood. By her own
account, she needed the distance, according to AP News. What she found,
after two years away, was that she still loved skating when it wasn't
something she had to do.

She returned to competition in 2024 with what AP News described as a
"fresh outlook" — less burdened by expectation, more grounded in the
simple fact that she was good at this and enjoyed it. The results
followed quickly. She won the U.S. Championships, then the World
Championships, arriving in Milan as the favorite but carrying none of
the pressure that had worn her down at 16.

The Performance in Milan

Liu's gold-medal free skate on February 19, 2026 earned a score of
226.79 — a commanding performance that left no ambiguity about the
result, according to NBC Olympics. The program was technically difficult
and emotionally complete: the kind of skate that ends the competition
before the final scores are announced. NBC Olympics broadcast it live to
an audience that had followed her story from prodigy to retiree to
champion, and the reaction was immediate and overwhelming.

She became the first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold
since Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games — a 24-year gap
that underscored just how significant the achievement was for American
figure skating, per NBC Olympics.

What Made the Difference

AP News noted that the version of Liu who competed in Milan was
fundamentally different from the teenager who struggled in Beijing. She
was older, yes — but the more meaningful change was psychological. She
had chosen to come back on her own terms, without the weight of a
prodigy's expectations pressing down on every jump. That freedom showed
in the performance.

Her coach and teammates described her in the lead-up to Milan as the
most relaxed competitor on the U.S. team — a remarkable description
for someone carrying the weight of a 24-year gold medal drought, per AP
News. The relaxed version of Alysa Liu, it turned out, was also the best
version.

A Story Worth Celebrating

Liu's gold is the kind of outcome that reminds people why sports matter
— not the performance of an unbeatable machine, but the arc of a
person who stepped away, figured out who she was outside of her sport,
and came back to find out she was even better for it.

At 20, she has already retired once, won a World Championship, and
claimed an Olympic gold. Whatever comes next for Alysa Liu, the ice
clearly isn't finished with her yet.

References: Alysa Liu Winter Olympics Figure Skating C8F8E792Be4C2319683882Bfbd3C8Bb6 | Alysa Liu Wins Olympic Gold 2026 Milan Cortina Games