Alysa Liu Gold Medals Ignite Social Surge and Shine a Light on Her Family’s Unusual Path
aly sa liu gold medals marked the climax of a comeback that saw the 20-year-old American move from third place into Olympic champion after a showstopping free skate in Milan, Italy, on Feb. 19, 2026 — and the victory immediately sent her Instagram following surging past 5 million.
Alysa Liu Gold Medals and the free skate that sealed it
Coming into the free skate in third after a couple of errors in the short program, Liu produced a near-flawless performance to Donna Summer while wearing a sparkly gold dress and scored 150. 20 in the free program. Her overall score of 226. 79 narrowly beat Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto; Liu had already beaten Sakamoto for the world title last year. The win added Olympic gold to Liu’s world title and completed a comeback that began when she quit the sport at 16 after missing out on a medal at Beijing 2022.
Early in the competition Liu had failed to fully rotate a triple lutz in the short program, leaving her playing catch-up behind Ami Nakai, who led after the short program, and Sakamoto after Tuesday night. There were no mistakes in the free skate; the routine drew what commentators cried out as "Oh my word!" and deafening cheers from the crowd.
Social media surge: 5. 3 million followers and the Gu comparison
Liu reached 5. 3 million followers on Instagram on Tuesday, just one week after winning the first individual Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating in 24 years. Prior to the start of the Olympics she had fewer than 300, 000 followers; coverage noted Liu is on pace to potentially double that number.
The surge prompted comparisons with freeskier Eileen Gu. Gu, who competes for Team China despite being born and raised in the U. S., won a gold and two silvers at these Games, bringing her Olympic medal total to six with three golds and making her the most decorated women’s freeskier in the sport’s history. Gu now sits at about 3. 7 million Instagram followers after starting the Olympics with over 2. 1 million; she even commented "YESSSSSS" on Liu’s post celebrating the gold.
Both athletes are children of immigrants who came to the U. S. from China. Arthur Liu raised Alysa and her siblings in Oakland, while Yan Gu raised Eileen in San Francisco. The Chinese government has launched programs to recruit foreign-born athletes of Chinese heritage, notably around the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and soccer; Gu requested a change of nation after competing for the U. S. at her first Freestyle Ski World Cup in January 2019 and began competing for China in June 2019.
Family story: Arthur Liu’s surrogacy path and the wider context
Alysa’s father, Arthur Liu, is a political refugee and a lawyer who decided at age 40 to start a family on his own. He became a single father by choice and has fathered five children through a pair of surrogates and anonymous egg donors. That personal detail has drawn attention in the wake of Liu’s gold.
Research notes that single-father households in the U. S. increased roughly fourfold since 1960; the total number as of 2016 stood at about 2 million single dads, or 17 percent of all single parents living with children under 18, with the majority being divorced, separated, or widowed. Becoming a single father by choice — and doing so gestational surrogacy, where the surrogate has no genetic link to the child — remains rarer. High-profile single fathers who used surrogacy include TV host Andy Cohen and singer Ricky Martin.
Scholars Henrique Pereira and Colleen Beatriz described this pathway in 2022 as "a social event that lacks visibility. " The legal landscape is uneven: in the U. K. the surrogate starts as the legal parent and couples must apply for parentage, a law only recently updated to allow prospective single parents the same route; in the U. S. surrogacy laws vary by state. Some states, for example Alaska, issue prebirth orders of parentage only to married couples with a genetic connection to the baby; others, for example Kansas, issue those orders to married couples regardless of genetic relationship. In Arizona, a single person with no genetic relationship can gain parental status only by filing for adoption after the baby is born. California, where the Liu family lives, is known for being a highly surrogacy-friendly state.
What the crowd saw, the medal ceremony, and what comes next
On the ice, Japan’s Ami Nakai, 17, took bronze and Mone Chiba finished fourth. Amber Glenn rose from 13th after the short program to finish fifth following an excellent free skate. Russian champion Adeliia Petrosian placed sixth after a fall. Ilia Malinin’s collapse in the men’s event had left the U. S. with only one singles gold, making Liu’s victory a much-needed boost; Malinin was among those in the crowd and gave Liu a standing ovation.
Liu, described in coverage as the alt girl with iconic halo hair and a lip piercing, addressed the crowd after her victory: "My family is out there, my friends are out there. I had to put on a show for them. When I see other people smiling, because I see them in the audience, I have to smile, too. I have no poker face. " Kaori Sakamoto, who skated in her final performance before retirement, took silver; Sakamoto, Liu and Nakai received their medals from IOC president Kirsty Coventry. A full schedule including times of medal events was published alongside the results.
Sakamoto’s retirement is the next chapter for the silver medalist; for Liu the immediate aftermath includes recovery, celebration and a rapidly changing public profile now measured in millions of followers and a new Olympic title.
