Alysa Liu wins gold in figure skating free skate, ends 24-year US drought

Team USA women’s figure skater Alysa Liu won gold in the women’s free skate final Thursday, ending a 20-year medal drought for American women in the event and a 24-year drought for gold. 

The last American woman to win a singles figure skating medal at the Olympics was Sasha Cohen at the 2006 Turin Games. And the last American woman to win a gold medal in singles figure skating was Sarah Hughes, who pulled off that accomplishment in 2002 when the Winter Games were held in Salt Lake City.

She landed all her jumps and smiled throughout, erupting in a demonstrative celebration after she finished. She yelled, “That’s what I’m f—ing talking about!’ and “Holy s—!” while celebrating with her team. 

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Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the women’s figure skating free program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Liu finished with a 226.79 total score, a 150.20 free skate score and a 76.59 short program score. It was her season-best free skate score.

But she still had to watch Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai challenge her. 

Sakamoto finished just behind Liu. Nakai appeared to come much closer, and there was a noticeable tension in the crowd as judges reviewed Nakai’s moves before delivering her final score. But once they announced that Nakai had come up short, the crowd exploded in celebration for Liu. 

Liu was the only American woman who qualified for a chance at the podium after Tuesday’s short program after teammates Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito came up short.

All the pressure was on Liu to win gold for the U.S. in an individual figure skating event after her teammates came up short.

Liu has become a fan favorite for the U.S. this year, playing a key role in helping her country win gold in the team event after her dramatic comeback story. She only just returned to the world stage after a brief retirement after her performance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. 

Prior to her appearance at the 2022 Beijing games, she and her father were the targets of a spying operation by the Chinese government.

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Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the women’s figure skating free program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Liu called the experience “a little bit freaky and exciting.”

“You know what I mean? It’s so … unbelievable. You know what I mean like, that’s crazy,” Liu previously told Fox News Digital at a roundtable interview at the USOPC Media Summit in October.

“Like, imagine finding that out at such a young age. I mean, like In a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like in some prank show?’ Like, is this world real? Like, I must be some movie character. But, I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, from, like, everything my dad did back in his activist days.”

She hasn’t ruled out having her life and experience in an international spying incident adapted for a movie.

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Alysa Liu of the United States arrives to compete during the women’s figure skating free program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Still, she has some preferences if her story makes it onto the big screen.

“They gotta make me look like a super cool hero or something. And just, I can’t just be the kid that got spied on and did nothing about it,” she said. 

“But, honestly, I would just have the main focus be like my dad’s story, because, like, his story is so cool and, like, also just like everything that only happened because of what he did. So,  I feel like we got to start with the roots.”  

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