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The Girl Who Came Back — and Won Everything: Alysa Liu is the inspiring Olympic Champion we've all been cheering for!

Let's just take a second, because Alysa Liu just did something that hadn't happened in 24 years. On February 19, 2026, the 20-year-old from Oakland, California skated out onto the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena in a sequined gold dress — dark hair streaked with horizontal blonde highlights that honestly look like something out of a fashion editorial — and became the first American woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating since Sarah Hughes in 2002. And she did it by coming in third after the short program. No big deal.

But here's what you already know if you're a fan: nothing rattles Alysa Liu. She's been called figure skating's unbothered queen, and she lives up to it. She says she doesn't feel pressure — she invites it all in. "I was at peak happiness when I was out there on the ice," she said after winning. "Nothing could bring me higher than that." The same energy as putting on your favorite record and letting it carry you somewhere.

She skated her free program to the late, great Donna Summer's MacArthur Park Suite, and from her opening triple flip to her final pose, she had the entire arena clapping along to the disco beat. As a pop music fan, you already know the power of that song — and Alysa channeled every single second of it. As she skated off the ice, she turned straight to the camera and let out an unfiltered, joyful exclamation that basically summed up the whole moment. Pure. Authentic. Iconic.

Now, the comeback story. After the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Liu retired from competitive skating at age 16. She was a teenager who had already broken every record imaginable — the youngest U.S. national champion ever at 13, the first American woman to land a quadruple jump, the first woman in the world to land a quad and triple Axel in the same program. She needed to figure out who she was beyond the ice. She climbed to Everest Base Camp. She studied at UCLA. She leaned into her love of music, fashion, dance, and photography. And then, a ski trip reminded her how much she loved to move — and she came back.

When she returned, everything was on her terms. She chose her own music, her own costumes, her own creative vision. She carefully selected her programs and her aesthetic, and the result was something the internet took notice of — Alysa Liu's core became a whole vibe, with fans posting montages of her simply being herself: free-spirited, artistic, joyful.

And that hair. Those dark locks with the horizontal blonde stripe pattern — the internet called it bleached tree-ringed hair — are as distinctive as her jumps. It's a look that says artist, not just athlete.

She's now a two-time Olympic gold medalist — women's singles and team event — as well as the 2025 World Champion, the first U.S. woman to hold that title in 19 years. But what makes Alysa Liu special isn't just the hardware. It's that she did it all by refusing to carry anyone else's expectations. Her coaches never even said the words, "Olympic gold medal," out loud as a goal. They just let her tell her story on the ice.

And what a story it is.