Drama in Women’s Olympic Figure Skating: Highlights & Coverage

– What a competition, NRK expert Anna Pushkova said delightedly after the freestyle which ended with silver for Kaori Sakamoto and bronze for 17-year-old Ami Nakai, both from Japan.

Alysa Liu from the USA took the chance to wear a gold dress.

– She dressed for the occasion. She has been smiling from start to finish in this race. This oozes sporting joy, said NRK expert Pushkova live.

– The most important thing is to love what you do, stated Pushkova.

Sarah Hughes won gold in 2002. She was the last American Olympic winner in the women’s category. Sasha Cohen took silver in 2006 – the last US medalist.

Gave up as a 16-year-old

As a 16-year-old, Alysa Liu took 6th place in Beijing four years ago. She gave up after that, but after a two-year break, she chose to make a comeback. Liu is happy about that now. She smiled broadly in the kiss-and-cry zone when the judges’ grades came up.

But the road to the Olympic gold must have been a drama.

In 2022, the US Department of Justice charged five men with acting on behalf of Chinese authorities and targeting Chinese dissidents in the US. Among these oppositionists was Liu’s father, Arthur, who organized pro-democracy protests in China before he fled the country in 1989. And according to his father, Alysa Liu was also a target, writes USA Today.

– Absolutely crazy

– A little scary and a little exciting, she referred to this as to Fox News in October 2025.

– Do you understand what I mean? It’s so… unbelievable. You know, it’s totally crazy, said Alysa Liu, wondering if she was on “hidden camera.”

The reason why the father was followed by spies is said to have been his involvement in the Tiananmen protests in 1989. There, students and workers demonstrated for weeks against corruption and for political reforms.

It is not just the gold dress that is special. So is her hair. In 2026, she has had characteristic horizontal stripes, which have a symbolic meaning for her. Liu has explained that she sees the stripes as the annual rings on a tree trunk. Each stripe marks the passing of a year and her journey back to the sport after she retired in 2022. She started in 2023 and adds one new stripe every winter. At the Games in 2026, she has had a total of three stripes.

Legends

Liu joins the ranks of legendary American women who have won Olympic gold in figure skating – Tara Lipinski (1998), Kristi Yamaguchi (1992), Dorothy Hamill (1976) and Peggy Fleming (1968) to name a few.

Another American, Amber Glenn, was very disappointed with 13th place after the short program – but delivered a sparkling free run and finished fifth in the end.

– This is a woman who has a lot of fans, said NRK commentator Fredrik Island Gustavsen live.

– She gets up with the pressure she has been under, said the expert Anna Pushkova.

Japan has won a total of six medals in the figure skating competitions at the Olympics. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won gold in pairs, while both the men’s and women’s classes won silver and bronze. In addition, there was silver in the team competition after the USA.