The drought is over.
After 24 years, Team USA has another Olympic champion in women’s figure skating and it’s Alysa Liu.
Liu came out of retirement to claim Olympic glory, earning a first-place finish following a flawless free skate, scoring a 150.20 to lift her to the top of the leaderboard. With her victory, she became the first women’s gold medalist in the sport since Sarah Hughes accomplished the feat during the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
“That’s what I’m [expletive] talking bout!” Liu exclaimed after her inspiring moment, which placed her in rare company.
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Olympic Short List
Liu is now one of only eight U.S. women to claim figure skating gold at the Olympics, joining Hughes, Tara Lipinski (1998 Nagano), Kristi Yamaguchi (1992 Albertville), Dorothy Hamill (1976 Innsbruck), Peggy Fleming (1968 Grenoble), Carol Weiss (1960 Squaw Valley) and Tenley Albright (1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo).
“I really can’t process this,” Liu said via the NBC broadcast as she walked through the tunnel of the figure skating venue. “I liked my skate a lot.”
Liu, who entered the free skate in third place, won by a margin of just 1.8 points, which was the second-smallest margin for a gold medalist winner under the current scoring system that was introduced in 2004.
Liu recorded a score of 226.79, Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto scored 224.90 to earn the silver medal, and Ami Sakai of Japan scored 219.16 to take home the bronze. Liu’s teammate, Amber Glenn, rebounded from a poor performance during the short program with a sound effort in the free skate, elevating from 13th place to a fifth-place finish with a score of 214.91.
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Long road
Liu had previously retired from the sport due to mental exhaustion. However, in March 2024, she announced her comeback.
Now, less than two years later, she is an Olympic gold medalist.
Another chapter in one of the more remarkable Olympic stories we have seen in quite some time.
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