Taylor Swift accepts the Artist of the Year award from Alysa Liu onstage at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 26 at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
Mark Zuckerberg, Alysa Liu and Priscilla Chan attend the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 4.
Stephanie Augello/MG26/Getty Images for the Met Museum
American Alysa Liu competes in the figure skating women’s single free skating final during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 19.
Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images
Tara Lipinski still wakes up — 28 years later — and reflects back on her Olympic gold medal performance in 1998 and thinks, “Wait, that happened to me?”
“(Olympian) Scott Hamilton told me after I won that I would have these ‘pinch-me’ moments that wouldn’t feel real and would last a lifetime,” said Lipinski, now an NBC skating analyst. “It’s surreal. And it’s a whirlwind.”
Eighty-seven days after Alysa Liu’s breakthrough gold medal performance at the Milan Olympics, the newly minted star will be back in the Bay Area to perform Sunday with Stars on Ice at SAP Center. The past three months have been a whirlwind of spotlights, travel, star turns and dealing with newfound celebrity status.
Article continues below this ad
“It’s been crazy,” Liu said in a phone conversation on Thursday from the tour’s stop in Utah. “I haven’t really been home. I think the scariest part is how many people know who I am now.
“I do have to cover my hair. Life is not normal anymore. … I don’t go out by myself now. I have to take my safety into consideration a little bit more.”
San Francisco Chronicle Logo
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.
Add Preferred Source
Her father, Oakland attorney Arthur Liu, said, “Her life has changed substantially. I don’t see her anymore!”
Article continues below this ad
Along with global exposure and instant recognition, opportunities and sponsorships have rolled in, with television appearances and magazine spreads. She’s inked deals with Louis Vuitton, Lucky Charms, Gillette and Fortnite. She’s rubbed shoulders with Harry Potter (actor Daniel Radcliffe), appeared in a Laufey music video and presented an award to Taylor Swift. In addition to the 28-city Stars on Ice tour in the United States, she’s been to Japan and also to the Met Gala, where she wowed in a Vuitton ruffled dress that made her look like the stem of a red rose.
Alysa Liu departs the 2026 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 4.
Arturo Holmes/MG26/Getty Images for the Met Museum
Arthur saw her that night, watching online as his daughter hobnobbed with the likes of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
“When she came out with that dress I said, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s so beautiful,’” he said.
Liu is learning to agree with Lipinski’s assessment of post-Olympic gold reality.
Article continues below this ad
“It is surreal,” Liu said.
All of these pinch-me moments represent opportunity. An Olympic gold medal still has a unique hold on the American imagination, and a women’s ice skating gold is an especially precious currency, a link to past icons. The metallic disc ignites fashion trends and little girls’ dreams; it represents a bonanza for the sport and riches for its winner.
“A gold medal can instantly change a career,” said Patrick Rishe, director of the Olin Sports Business program at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the past, you had a rocket ship to instant fame, and you got some deals related to that. But because there wasn’t social media, you had a very small window to capitalize on that gold medal.
“It can absolutely be a catalyst for the future. And that is more true today than ever before, because of the existence of social and digital media, where athletes can be their own storytellers, have Instagram pages, TikTok pages, channels on Twitch, and engage younger audiences. More eyeballs mean dollars for corporate partners.”
Model and influencer Emma Chamberlain and gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu at the 2026 Met Gala in New York on May 4.
Matt Winkelmeyer/MG26/Getty Images for the Met Museum
Liu catapulted to stardom in Milan, with a performance that was so joyous, so devoid of the usual tension and anxiety, that it lifted spirits around the globe.
Article continues below this ad
“That performance, that joy she brought to the ice, was the Alysa Liu effect,” Lipinski said. “Millions of little kids were watching and saying, ‘I want to go on the ice and be like that.’ It just seeps into pop culture.”
Liu has 8.4 million followers on Instagram. She’s a drought-ender: the first American woman to win the skating gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002, the longest stretch of U.S. futility in the modern Olympic era. And she has a unique and inspiring story to tell: She walked away from the sport at age 16, deciding to take charge of her own life and returned — unapologetically — on her own terms.
In one of her post-Olympic interviews, when asked what she would tell her younger self, Liu laughed.
“Nothing,” Liu said. “She’s got it. She’ll figure it out.
“She’ll go through it and I don’t want to mess that up.”
Article continues below this ad
That bucking of the conventional path makes Liu particularly appealing. Now 20, she’s a true Gen Z star, with her pierced gums, halo-striped hair, fashion and music choices and fierce independent streak.
“A young star in any sport is attractive to marketers because brands want to reach younger people,” said Rishe, an expert in sports economics. “Younger stars tend to have greater stickiness and engagement with younger audiences.”
Kid Mendoza takes a photo of his dog Kozy on Feb. 28 while artists with Illuminaries paint a mural of gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.
Dan Hernandez/S.F. Chronicle
But even with social media and so many different ways to reach an audience, stickiness still can have a shelf life.
“It doesn’t hurt if she goes on to win more medals, but I think that initial splash, that’s the window where visibility is going to be at its highest,” Rishe said.
And with that splash, in that whirlwind of opportunity, comes more pressure. But that seems to be one part of the post-Olympic experience that Liu just might be equipped to avoid.
“I would say I thrive under pressure,” Liu said.
She certainly did at the Olympics, in the kind of heat that makes other athletes crack.
“I don’t think that (pressure) will really apply to Alysa. and that’s what makes her so unique,” Lipinski said. “The pressure of the Olympics didn’t faze her. I think she’s probably living in the moment and doing what feels right for her instead of letting other people pressure her. She’s just so refreshing.”
Her father, who was told in no uncertain terms by his daughter when she unretired that she was now in charge of her career, believes that strong-willed streak will serve her well as she figures out this stage of her career.
“When she makes up her mind, no one can turn it around,” Arthur said. “She just wants to live her own life, and I think that’s inspiring to many people.
“I think she’s having a ton of fun. She’s all smiles. I think the most important part is that she doesn’t take herself too seriously.”
Alysa Liu displays her gold medal after competing in the women’s free skate program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated Press
But the Olympic star-making machine is serious business. There’s no way to truly measure the worth of a gold medal. Gymnast Simone Biles, another Olympian in a sport that pops every four years, is estimated to have a net worth of $25 million. Snowboarder Chloe Kim, a winter Olympian who grew beyond an X Games audience, is estimated to be worth $10 million.
If Liu does compete in the next Winter Olympics, in the French Alps in 2030, it would be another diversion from the usual path. In the past, American women who won gold promptly left competition: Lipinski and Kristi Yamaguchi turned professional to tour with Stars on Ice, when rules surrounding amateurism were different. Hughes enrolled at Yale the year after winning gold.
“I really do take it one season at a time,” said Liu, who disrupted future plans when she walked away from skating at 16. “I learned that firsthand.”
Arthur estimates that over the years he probably spent a half-million to a million dollars on Liu’s training, eager to cultivate the talent he saw in his daughter at age 5. He was inspired by Michelle Kwan; parents today will be inspired by Liu. Lipinski — who competed during the heyday of skating in the 1990s — predicts Liu’s success will have a big impact on boosting the sport.
“She’s the perfect spokesperson,” Lipinski said. “For all the good things that come with something you’re talented at and being able to share that with the world. And to do it in a way that doesn’t suffocate you.”
Liu isn’t doing this alone. She has an agent and financial advisers to help her navigate her new reality.
“I have a great team working with me,” she said. “I’m super grateful for all the opportunities, the really cool ones, and I’m obviously selective with them. It’s truly amazing that I get to experience that as an athlete.”
Alysa Liu competes during the women’s figure skating free program at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
Francisco Seco/Associated Press
The Stars on Ice tour ends in two weeks, and Liu is looking forward to getting back to the Bay Area and doing what she loves best: training.
“I definitely need to take a break sometime but I also do want to get back into training, because that’s what I like to do,” she said.
She knows that it will be different, being released from the Stars on Ice bubble, where she’s ferried from planes to buses and surrounded by other skaters. She said that so far, in terms of recognition, “I haven’t had to deal with the worst of it yet.”
That’s part of the price of being a global celebrity, with “pinch-me” moments and vast opportunity. For Alysa Liu, it’s a whole new world.