Alysa Liu's fresh outlook when she returned to skating helped her win Olympic gold

Alysa Liu's fresh outlook when she returned to skating helped her win Olympic gold Alysa Liu won Olympic gold in women’s figure skating by skating loose, smiling and doing it her own way By DAVE SKRETTA AP sports writer February 20, 2026, 6:42 AM MILAN -- Alysa Liu probably cared the least of all the women in figure skating at the Milan Cortina Olympics about winning the gold medal. Maybe that is why she won it. The 20-year-old with the striped hair, prominent frenulum piercing and carefree attitude never showed any worry or strain when she took the ice for her free skate on Thursday night . Instead, Liu waved up at her friends and family in the stands, grinned throughout her program, and acted as if she was going through just another training session at the Oakland Ice Center back in California. “My family is out there. My friends are out there. I had to put on a show for them,” Liu said afterward. “When I see other people out there smiling, because I see them in the audience, then I have to smile, too. I have no poker face.” It was all smiles for her crew after Donna Summer's version of “MacArthur Park” came to a conclusion. Liu earned a score of 226.79 points, sending her surging past silver medalist Kaori Sakamoto and Japanese teammate Ami Nakai, who took bronze. Liu's coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, embraced in a hug, content in knowing that a comeback two years in the making had achieved something incredible: The first women's figure skating gold medal for the U.S. since Sarah Hughes in 2002. Liu's family members stood and cheered, as did the rest of the crowd inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena. No doubt every official at U.S. Figure Skating, and every member of its Olympic team, also felt a surge of joy. Or relief. It had been a frustrating Winter Games on a number of levels, beginning with some controversial ice dance scoring that denied Madison Chock and Evan Bates the gold medal, and continuing right through Ilia Malinin's struggles in his...