Alice Liu's triumph on ice. What is known about the Olympic champion who did not allow the Russian woman onto the podium

As The Guardian notes, Liu left figure skating at the peak of her career almost four years ago, citing fatigue and burnout.

On February 19, 2026, in a sparkling gold dress, she took to the ice to the song MacArthur Park Suite performed by American singer, five-time Grammy winner Donna Summer, and cleanly completed all seven triple jumps, including three in combination. The athlete’s performance ended to a storm of applause from the audience, and the judges gave her 226.79 points.

With this, Liu became the first American woman to win an individual gold medal in figure skating since 2002.

The Guardian emphasizes that the favorite of the competition was Russian Adelia Petrosyan, a three-time champion of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, who competed as a neutral skater.

The editors called her a “dangerous gold contender.” Liu's return to the ice deprived the Russian of her hope for a medal – she planned to win gold thanks to a quadruple sheepskin coat, but fell on the ice during the decisive jump. Commenting on her sixth place, the Russian woman said that she felt ashamed and added that she took the blame for the defeat on herself.

The most interesting facts about Liu

CNN writes that Liu “spent most of her childhood in the golden cage of figure skating.” She first started skating at age five, encouraged by her father, a Chinese immigrant who settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1990s. There he opened a law firm and started a family. Alice is the eldest of his five children.

At age 13, Alice Liu won the national figure skating championship, becoming the youngest champion in the competition's history. A year later, she defended her title, and at age 16 she represented the United States at the Beijing Olympics, finishing seventh there.

A couple of months after the Olympics, she won bronze at the World Championships and announced her retirement. The editors of the American television channel note that she left the sport in order to “live the life that she so lacked.”

The publication notes that it was this tactic that to some extent allowed Liu to win gold at the ice arena in Milan (Italy).

According to CBC, Liu became one of the main stars of the Olympics. Describing her performance, the editors noted that Liu looked simply ethereal on the ice and captivated the audience by “skating with incredible joy, jumping with athleticism and freedom.”