Alysa Liu breaks Team USA's 24-year Olympic gold medal drought in women's figure skating

Team USA women's fig skater Alysa Liu won golden successful the women's escaped skate last connected Thursday, ending a 20-year drought for American women to medal successful the event, and a 24-year drought to triumph gold. 

The past American pistillate to triumph a singles fig skating medal astatine the Olympics was Sasha Cohen successful the 2006 Turin Games, and the past American pistillate to triumph a golden medal successful singles fig skating was Sarah Hughes, who pulled disconnected that accomplishment successful 2002 erstwhile the Winter Games were held successful Salt Lake City.

She landed each her jumps and smiled throughout, and exploded into a demonstrative solemnisation aft she finished. She was adjacent heard yelling, "that's what I'm f---ing talking about!' and "holy s---!" portion celebrating with her team. 

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Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the women's fig skating escaped programme astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics successful Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Liu finished with 226.79 full score, 150.20 escaped skate score, 76.59 abbreviated programme score. It was her season-best successful escaped skate score.

But she inactive had to ticker Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai spell aft her. 

Sakamoto was lone bully capable to travel up conscionable down Liu. Nakai appeared to travel overmuch closer, arsenic determination was a noticeable hostility successful the assemblage arsenic judges reviewed Nakai's moves earlier delivering her last score. But erstwhile they announced that Nakai had travel up short, the assemblage exploded successful solemnisation for Liu. 

Liu was the lone American pistillate who qualified for a accidental astatine the podium aft Tuesday's abbreviated program, arsenic teammates Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito came up short.

All the unit was connected Liu to triumph a golden for the U.S. successful an idiosyncratic fig skating lawsuit aft her teammates came up short, men's prima Ilia Malinin fell to 8 spot aft 2 falls.

Liu has go a instrumentality favourite for the U.S. this year, playing a cardinal relation successful helping her state triumph golden successful the squad lawsuit aft her melodramatic comeback story. She lone conscionable returned to the satellite signifier aft a little status pursuing her show astatine the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. 

Just anterior to her quality successful the 2022 Beijing games, she and her begetter were the targets of a spying operationspying cognition by the Chinese government.

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Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the women's fig skating escaped programme astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics successful Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Liu called the acquisition "a small spot freaky and exciting."

"You cognize what I mean? It's so… unbelievable. You cognize what I mean like, that's crazy," Liu antecedently told Fox News Digital astatine a roundtable interrogation astatine the USOPC Media Summit successful October.

"Like, ideate uncovering that retired astatine specified a young age, I mean, similar In a weird way, I was like, 'Am I similar successful immoderate prank show?' Like, is this satellite existent similar I indispensable beryllium immoderate movie character. But, I mean, it was similar it made consciousness to me, you know, from similar everything my dada did backmost successful his activistic days."

She hasn't ruled retired seeing her life, and acquisition successful an planetary spying incident, adapted into a movie.

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Alysa Liu of the United States arrives to vie during the women's fig skating escaped programme astatine the 2026 Winter Olympics successful Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.  (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Still, she has immoderate preferences if her communicative makes it onto the large screen.

"They gotta marque maine look similar ace chill leader oregon something. And just, I can't conscionable beryllium the kid that got spied connected and did thing astir it," she said. "But honestly, I would conscionable person the main absorption beryllium similar my dad's story, due to the fact that similar his communicative is truthful chill and similar besides conscionable similar everything that lone happened due to the fact that of what helium did, so, similar I consciousness similar we got to commencement with the roots."  

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