Alysa Liu is a dancing queen when it comes to figure skating, but above all, she’s a family girl at heart. The two-time Olympian took home the gold medal following the women’s individual free skate at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, and her father and siblings were there to cheer her on!
The Oakland, California, resident’s comeback story is one for the history books. She became the first U.S. woman to win gold for this event in more than 20 years. Naturally, fans assumed Alysa had been constantly competing to get to this moment, but she actually stepped away from competitive skating when she was a teen — and she credited her family as the reason behind her brief retirement.
“Once quarantine started, I was like, ‘Wow! This is what not skating is like.’ And I loved it so much,” Alysa explained in March 2025 to The Guardian. “My worry was that I’ll have never lived with my family. I’m growing up so fast, so young. I knew that if I continued skating, I would never have a chance at home.”
ALYSA SEEING HER FAMILY FOR FIRST TIME AFTER WINNING GOLD. 💛 #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/67T9RATghK
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) February 20, 2026
Get to know Alysa’s whole family here!
Alysa’s father is Arthur Liu, who has supported her throughout her figure skating career since she stepped on the ice at 5 years old. Born and raised in China, Arthur was forced to flee the country at 25 years old because of his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He relocated to the Bay Area of California, where he studied and eventually practiced law. He started his own practice, Inter-Pacific Law Group Inc., and became a dad to his five children via surrogacy.
According to multiple reports, Alysa and Arthur were targeted in a spy operation that was believed to have been ordered by the Chinese government. During a previous interview with The Associated Press, Arthur said the government was “probably just trying to intimidate us, to … in a way threaten us not to say anything, to cause trouble to them and say anything political or related to human rights violations in China.”
