The Stunning Transformation Of Olympic Figure Skater Alysa Liu

Unless you made a concerted effort to avoid any and all 2026 Winter Olympics news, it would be surprising if you haven't heard the name Alysa Liu. At the Milano Cortina Games, she made history on the ice, leaving the games with not one but two gold medals, representing the 2026 U.S. figure skating team. Liu's path to Olympic glory has been far from conventional, with her stepping away from the sport only a few years into her career. When she did eventually make her way back onto skating in 2022, the athlete changed the game in more ways than one.

Liu plays by her own rules, and it's clearly served her well. As she said in an interview for Nike, "When I came back to figure skating, people said I would have to change my hair and I said, 'No, I won't be changing my hair.' People give me song suggestions, and I'll take them into consideration, but if I don't like something, I'm not going to skate to it." Prioritizing authenticity and mental health above perfectionism, she's become an empowering Gen Z icon. The Olympics might be over, but Liu is just getting started. Here is an in-depth breakdown of her life before skating, her many achievements at a young age, her bold decision to quit, and her even more inspiring journey to the podium.

Born on August 8, 2005, Alysa Liu was raised in Richmond, California, by her father, Arthur Liu.  The figure skater and her four younger siblings — Selina Liu and triplets Julia, Justin, and Joshua Liu — were born via surrogacy and egg donors; Alysa and the triplets share the same surrogate mother. Alysa's father, who was born and raised in China and he fled to America in the wake of his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, always wanted to be a dad, so he made that dream come true after he relocated to the United States. His mother eventually moved to California from China to help him raise the five Liu siblings.

Alysa's skating journey began when she was 5 years old, and it wasn't long before Arthur was locked in on her budding career. "It was basically his business," Alysa told "60 Minutes." Her schedule was packed with practice, competitions, and travel, all with the goal of making her a stellar athlete.  Managing Alysa's skating endeavors became his second full-time job, as Arthur also worked as a lawyer in the Bay area at his own private practice. 

In addition to spending his time on Alysa's skating, Arthur sure spent a lot of money. When asked how much he shelled out on her career over the years in the aforementioned "60 Minutes" interview, he stated, "I would say half a million to a million dollars."

Arthur Liu's efforts did pay off. At 12, Alysa Liu made history as the youngest skater and third U.S. woman to land a triple axel in an international competition during her stint in the 2018 Asian Open. She then went on to become the youngest woman ever to win a U.S. championship and land three triple axels in a single competition. With a gold medal hanging from her neck at the 2019 U.S. Figure Skating championship in Detroit, Alysa shared the podium with then 20-year-old Bradie Tenell and 22-year-old Mariah Bell. Alysa was too short to reach the podium on her own, so her competitors helped lift her up to the middle step. It was a moment that illustrated Alysa's achievement at such a young age and set the precedent for her future Olympic accolades.

When Alysa took first at the aforementioned championship, she broke a record previously set by Tara Lipinski, whose own stunning transformation included winning that very tournament at age 14 in 1997. Lipinski was a commentator when Alysa took on the gold and expressed her enthusiasm over the promising athlete. As Liu told "Today" in 2019, "[Lipinski] was like, 'I'm so proud of you, records are meant to be broken and I'm so happy that you broke the record." This would not be the last time that the U.S. champion complimented Alysa on the ice. After her 2026 Olympic win, Tara took to Instagram to sing her praises. "Alysa you were magic out there! The way you so effortlessly showed us all what pure joy and passion looks like on the ice gave me goosebumps," she said in a post.

The skater continued to make strides as a teen. In 2020, she became the first American woman to land a quadruple lutz at the U.S. championships, once again beating Bradie Tenell and Mariah Bell (and once again needing their help to get up on the podium). Liu scored 160.12 points for her free skate to "Illumination" by Jennifer Thomas, and her overall total — 235.52 points — earned her the title. She seemed destined for the Olympics, with her reigniting the possibility of an American woman winning a singles figure skating medal at the Games. (The last one to do so up until then was Sasha Cohen, who earned a silver medal in 2006.) Aiming to qualify for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics (after all, that's when she would officially meet the strict Olympics rules to compete), Liu began skating twice a day at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. She had a clear goal in mind and did whatever she could to make it to the top.

Though she'd already accomplished so much in the skating world at a young age, Liu was determined to keep growing as an athlete. After all, despite mastering challenging jumps, she still felt she had to improve other skills that could elevate her skating performance to new heights. "I'm mainly working on my speed on the ice, because I am pretty slow," Liu once told Today. "And I'm working on how well I do each movement, my flow in between each movement, and trying to become more flexible."

As a member of Team USA's figure skating team at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu was more than ready to make her Games debut. At 16, Liu was the youngest member of the U.S. team, entering Olympic terrain as a two-time national champion. Her performance landed her in eighth place with a score of 69.50 in the women's short program. She then finished in seventh after her free skate. 

While some competitors might've been disappointed not to make it to the podium at the biggest skating competition on the planet, Liu wasn't terribly bothered by the results. "I honestly just wanted to do two clean programs," she said after the Games, per U.S. Figure Skating. "I can't believe I actually did two clean programs. Like, I can, because I trained so much, but like, I can't. Everything has been really crazy."

After spending the majority of her life chasing the dream of being one of the greatest figure skaters on the planet, Liu needed a change of pace. That's when she decided to hit the brakes and uncover what it was that the world had to offer outside the confines of a rink.

After winning bronze at the world championships about a month after skating in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Alysa Liu up and quit the sport. While other young superstar athletes might see an early retirement as a career blow, the self-assured figure skater knew that taking things at her own pace was exactly what she needed to do. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she announced her big break. "I started skating when I was 5 so that's about 11 years on the ice and it's been an insane 11 years," she wrote (via Town & Country). "A lot of good and a lot of bad but (you know) that's just how it is. I've made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I'll have for the rest of my life."

In a 2026 interview with Teen Vogue, Liu shared that she recognized that she was ready for a break when she took a day off from training and felt a weight lift off her shoulders. "That was something completely foreign to me," she recalled. "And then through that, it was also like, Oh, I can eat! I'm eating something I've never been able to eat without getting in trouble before." 

Off the ice, Liu dug into other interests, including gaming, hiking, and anime. In a separate interview with NBC Los Angeles, the skater encouraged parents to respect their children's decision to leave a sport, and also offered advice for other athletes wanting to hit pause. In her words, "trying new things will definitely give you a different outcome."

Following her retirement, Alysa Liu embraced the next chapter of her life — and it suited her well. "My mental health used to be horrible, like, absolutely horrible," she told Today in 2026. "And I just took a break, and I did something new. I moved on to a different part of my life. I really focused on school and friendship, and honestly, that's the thing that grounded me." After hanging up her skates, she enrolled at UCLA in the fall of 2023, where she decided to focus on studying psychology. 

As Liu told USA Today, she was drawn to this field of study because of her own mental health journey and truly unique life experiences. Taking into account her abnormal childhood, being thrust into the competitive world of figure skating from an early age, she had a lot that she wanted to unpack about her upbringing and her career aspirations. "I just really wanted to get to the bottom of it, if that makes sense. ... I don't know if I've fully solved it," she said. "I guess that's the goal, but I think there's something also beautiful about it being a mystery."

After years of putting skating on hold, Alysa Liu started to miss the feeling of landing triple axels with ease. While enjoying a normal life as a college student, she went on a ski trip in January of 2024 that changed her perspective of skating in a major way. She told The Oaklandside that skiing reminded her of what she enjoyed about dancing on ice, more so than the reasons that led her to take a break. "Your legs are tired, you're out of breath, you're cold, and the cold wind keeps hitting you," she said. "That's a lot like skating." Before she knew it, she was ready to get back to the sport.

When Liu reached out to her former coach about diving back into training, he was skeptical at first. "I had to convince him!" she told Rolling Stone. "He was like, 'Before, you didn't like doing this, or this. What about now?'" Evidently, taking some time away was just what she needed to fall back in love with figure skating.

She also knew that certain things had to change in order for her to fully commit to it without regrets. Instead of maintaining the rigorous training schedule she used to have, the athlete practices in the morning and the afternoon, leaving more time open for her social life. Finding that balance changed the game for the Olympian.

While Olympic ice skaters are expected to follow set fashion rules, Alysa Liu certainly hasn't let that stop her from being a style icon in her own right. Instead of rocking a classic figure skating 'do — think slicked-back buns and understated ponytails — Liu embraced a bold halo hairstyle that reflected her convention-defying approach to her career. 

In 2023, Liu began using hair dye to create a ring effect in her hair. In 2026, she went to St. Louis hairstylist Kelsey Miller for her most ambitious look yet. She spent five hours in the salon as Miller added not one, not two, but three bright blond stripes to her naturally dark hair. Each stripe represents the years that have gone by since Liu went out of retirement. "I just wanted to be a tree," Liu said on TikTok (via E! News), referencing how the rings in a tree trunk signify a cycle of seasons.

In addition to her unconventional hairstyle, Liu also put a frenulum piercing through her upper lip. She did the piercing herself with assistance from her sister. In a 2024 episode of the "In the Loop" podcast, the athlete shared that the decision to do it without professional help was because she thought that getting a piercing done was expensive. "I thought I'd learn it myself, be a little DIY-girl," she said.

Shortly after Alysa Liu decided she was ready to head back to the ice, her career was back in full swing. In March 2025, she became the first U.S. woman to win the World Championships since Kimmie Meissner in 2006. The following year, she returned to the Winter Olympics for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. Her showing proved that she was more than ready to be back on the world stage.

Throughout her free skate, short program, and exhibition performances, Liu was the opposite of rusty. Sure, she'd taken a couple years off, but you wouldn't know it watching her performances — especially the free skate. The routine, which was set to "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer, not only featured exquisite technical execution but let her personality shine; her outfit, a stunning metallic gold Lisa McKinnon dress, earned her a spot on the list of best-dressed athletes at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The judges were impressed, to say the least, and her scores earned her the top spot on the podium. She became the first U.S. woman to win Olympic singles gold since 2002.

Liu was not only proud of her achievements, but thrilled that she had the chance to do what she loves on her own terms. "These titles are huge, but I don't want them to overshadow who I am and what I do and what I am all about," she said, per NBC News. "Winning isn't all that, and neither is losing." If one gold medal weren't enough, Liu walked away from the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics with another one dangling from her neck after winning the team event.

To say that Alysa Liu did it her way is an understatement. From bouncing back from a much-needed break to uncovering her own identity in the sport, Liu's path to Olympic glory has been a particularly compelling one to witness. And even though she is now a wildly famous person with millions of followers on Instagram, it apparently hasn't changed the way she carries on with her life. As she told People, aside from sharing posts, she really only engages with people on social media that she actually knows in real life. For the time being, she has taken a break from college and is back in Oakland, celebrating her success with her family and friends.

Following her victory, Liu's hometown honored her with a mural painted by a graffiti group called The Illuminaries. A homecoming party took place on March 12, 2026, at the Frank Ogawa Plaza, with the festivities setting the tone for her next career moves. Although Liu has recently been pulled from the World Championships in Prague, she is still set to join the Stars on Ice tour starting in April 2026. She also announced her partnership with Nike, collaborating with the brand on an exclusive apparel collection. Whether on the ice or on the red carpet (as was the case in her 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar after party outing), Liu will remain a singular star wherever she goes.