U.S. champ at 13, retired at 16, Olympic champ at 20; Alysa Liu’s remarkable journey to top of Olympic podium
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Veteran sportswriter Richard Deitsch takes an international view of the Olympics.
It came down to the final skater, as it often does in the Olympic Games. Ami Nakai of Japan. Alysa Liu of the United States. The world truly belongs to the youth — a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old competing for sporting immortality.
“If she free skates this free skate clean, she will probably become the Olympic champion,” said NBC figure skating analyst Tara Lipinski of Nakai.
It was close. It’s always close at this level. Nakai was fantastic; Liu was otherworldly. The American skated with an overabundance of joy, jumping with athleticism and freedom, winning the crowd. Liu scored a season-best 150.20 to vault into the lead with a total score of 226.79, a personal best.
It was the completion of a remarkable journey for Liu, the youngest-ever U.S. champion at 13, followed by retirement at 16, and then coming back to win the world championships at 19.
When the scores came in for Nakai, she hit the board in bronze position. Kaori Sakamoto, the elegant world champion who announced her retirement prior to the event, finished second. Also a word for American Amber Glenn, who got zero points for an invalid element in her short program, a crushing mark that left the highest-rated U.S. figure skater in the world in 13th place after the short program. But Glenn was brilliant in the free skate. Her performance on Thursday included a spectacular triple axel and she earned a score of 147.52 to finish with a total of 214.91. That had her in first place until the final four skaters. She finished fifth.
But Liu walks away as one of the biggest stars of these Games. She is the first American woman to find gold in women’s figure skating since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
“I just can’t process this,” Liu said after winning. “There’s no way.”
Oh, it’s real. A star is born in Milan.
American Alysa Liu ended a 24-year drought, by winning the Olympic figure skating women’s singles title at Milano Cortina 2026.
Who will star on Friday?
The final Saturday is traditionally a massive medal event day (12 this year) but don’t sleep on Friday. The women’s 1,500-metre speed skating final (10:30 a.m. ET) has phenomenal stories across the track. With 10 Olympic medals, Japan’s Miho Takagi trails only Dutch legend Ireen Wüst for the most medals in speed skating history. She’s won silver in this race twice (both behind Wust) and is the favourite.
Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida has already reached national hero status with gold medals in the 3,000 and 5,000 metres. Femke Kok of the Netherlands won gold in the 500 metres and silver in the 1,000. American Brittany Bowe owns two Olympic bronzes but she’s already a winner at these Olympics as she and hockey-playing partner and gold medallist Hilary Knight announced their engagement. Takagi will skate in the last pairing with Czechia’s Nikola Zdrahlova.
Team USA’s Alex Ferreira and New Zealand’s Finley Melville Ives are the favourites in the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe (1:30 p.m. ET) following the retirement of defending Olympic champion Nico Porteous. Ferreira won bronze in this event four years ago in Beijing and silver in Pyeongchang in 2018.
One of the most interesting names in the event is Great Britain’s Gus Kenworthy, who came out of retirement for his fourth Winter Olympic appearance. Kenworthy won a silver medal in Sochi in the Slopestyle.
The women’s short track 1,500 metres is the last race at the Olympics for Italy’s Arianna Fontana, whose three medals at these Games increased her overall total to 14 Olympic medals, making her the most decorated Olympian in Italy’s history across both Winter and Summer Games. The quarterfinals begin at 2:15 p.m. ET and Fontana is set to go in Quarterfinal No. 6
Among the contenders in women’s ski cross: Defending Olympic champion Sandra Naeslund of Swede, Switzerland’s Fanny Smith, a bronze medallist in Beijing, and Jole Gaili of Italy. The final round is scheduled for 7:10 a.m. ET
Olympic imagery
Numbers to know
17 – Sliding tracks for bobsled, skeleton and luge that exist in the world, per Sports Business Journal.
14 – Olympic medals for Italian short-track skater Arianna Fontana, tied with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen for second all-time among Winter Olympians. Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjorgen is the most decorated Winter Olympian with 15 medals.
12 – Bronze medals won by Japan, the most bronze medals for any country at the Games.
2:59.77 – Winning time for Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton in the first-ever ski mountaineering sprint final.
3 – Number of times the women’s Olympic hockey final has gone to overtime (or beyond) between Canada and the United States. Canada won 3-2 in overtime at Sochi 2014; Team USA won in a shootout in 2018, and Team USA prevailed 2-1 in overtime on Thursday.
2 – Medals for Spain at these Games after Oriol Cardona Coll won gold in the ski mountaineering men’s sprint final and Ana Alonso Rodriguez took bronze in the women’s event. Spain’s only previous Winter Olympics gold was won by alpine skier Francisco Fernandez Ochoa at Sapporo in 1972.
1 – Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) to win a medal at the Milano-Cortina Games. Russian ski mountaineer Nikita Filippov, competing under the AIN banner, finished in second behind Spain’s Cardona Coll.
What we’re reading around the web
► Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss relive their Olympic skating triumph from 70 years ago in Cortina. By Dave Skretta of The Associated Press
► What Is Skimo? The Newest Olympic Sport Has a Long History in Europe. By Anna Fioretino of Smithsonian Magazine.
► Oksana Baiul, Nancy Kerrigan, Lu Chen Revisit Iconic Photo from 1994 Games, From The New York Times
► With slalom gold, Mikaela Shiffrin rewrites her story and finds freedom By Tim Layden of NBC Sports
► Covid, carnage and convalescence: Why one athlete’s extraordinary journey to the Olympics took 16 years. From Don Riddell of CNN
► How New Zealand set an Olympic snowboarding record and became a power on snow. By Eddie Pells of The Associated Press
► Alysa Liu becomes first American woman to win Olympic figure skating gold in 24 years. By Marcus Thompson of The Athletic.
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