Alysa Liu is the 2026 Olympic champion.
It was a stunning outcome for the U.S. 2025 world champion, who returned to the sport after more than two years of retirement, following the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Liu is known for her free spirit and joyful demeanor on the ice, but she also delivered the technical content needed to support her Olympic bid. With the win, she became the first U.S. women's figure skater to take gold since Sarah Hughes achieved the feat in 2002.
"I'm very happy with how I skated," Liu said after the medal ceremony. "[It was an] unbelievable feeling when I was done skating. And when I was skating — hearing the cheers — and I felt so connected with the audience. I want to be out there again."
Liu is a former prodigy who captured her first U.S. title at just 13. She was the third U.S. woman to land a triple axel, and the first to land a quad in competition, and she earned 6th in the Beijing Olympics. Then, at 16, to the surprise of the figure skating world, she walked away from it all. But two years later she found herself drawn back to the ice. She began training, and less than a year later, she won the World Championships shocking everyone, including herself.
Since coming back, she's made it clear she is competing on her own terms, and sees herself as an artist first and foremost. She's been labeled figure skating's "unbothered queen," and says the results matter less to her than how she feels while performing.
"I really don't feel nervous. I don't feel the pressure. There's nothing like holding me down or holding me back," she said after the short program in Milan Cortina. "I invite it all in. So, no matter what happens, it's a story."
A story it certainly was. Liu took less than a two-point lead over Japan's veteran three-time world champion, Kaori Sakamoto. Sakamoto gave a beautiful performance, with her signature class evident from start-to-finish in her Edith Piaf free skate. But just a few small errors on her jumps made the difference between gold and silver on the night.
Sakamoto was seen in tears after the event concluded, but it was unclear if the emotion was from the loss of the gold, or simply the enormity of the moment — Sakamoto has announced that this season, and perhaps this performance, will be her last.
In 3rd, 17-year-old Ami Nakai, also from Japan, gave a delightful showing in her Olympic debut. The youngest competitor of the event, Nakai slipped from 1st after the short program to 9th in her "What a Wonderful World" free skate but had enough of a lead to hold on for the bronze.
Her teammate, Mone Chiba, held on to 4th place skating to “Romeo and Juliet,” giving an excellent performance but several jumps were called with under rotations, and the deductions may have made the 1.28-point difference that kept her from bronze.
Amber Glenn had an incredible rally from 13th to 3rd place in the free skate and 5th overall. It was the redemption she was looking for, and she delivered a gorgeous rendition of her "I Will Find You" free skate. Masterful, easy, it was Glenn at her best. Only one error — a hand down on her final jump, a triple loop — and otherwise she was nearly perfect. "So close," she was seen to say at the end, likely referencing that one mistake.
The crowd roared along with her, and you could see the relief and happiness spread across her face as she knew she was having the skate she so wanted. She earned a season's best of 147.52 points for the free skate, giving her a total of 214.91 points.
"I'm so proud of the resilience I showed," she said after the event. "It has not been easy. I have had so many things standing in my way that I have to just work through. And so, I'm just really happy I was able to go out there and do what I love and
enjoy it."
Figure skaters compete the free skate in reverse of the short program results — the lead skater performing last to round out the event. After the disappointment of the short program, which came down to a doubled loop jump that should have been a triple, Glenn skated in the second warm up group, near the middle of the event starting order.
She handily went into 1st place after she finished, and as skater after skater performed in the groups that followed, Glenn stayed sitting in the leader's chair beside the Kiss and Cry. You could see the tension on her face as she cheered for her competitors while they skated, also aware that the better they did, the sooner she would be toppled from the lead.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh,' because I didn't want anyone to make a mistake," Glenn said. "But you also, you're like, 'Oh, but I don't want to [lose the lead]. So, it's very conflicting. But I was just glad I was able to see such a fantastic event up close."
Isabeau Levito gave a gorgeous performance in the free skate to "Cinema Paradiso." The 18-year-old, 2024 world silver medalist, looked slightly nervous, and she fell on her first jump — a triple flip — but she gave a technically sound outing other than that. Her spins all received level fours, and her drop from 8th in the short program to 13th in the free skate (and 12th overall) was more indicative of the quality of other skaters on the night, rather than any deficiencies in her Olympic debut.
"This has been a wonderful experience, and I don't have a bad thing to say about these weeks," Levito said, adding that figure skating is largely mental, and she hasn't yet had a chance to reflect on her performances in Milan Cortina.