UCLA student Alysa Liu will return from the 2026 Winter Olympics with a pair of figure skating gold medals after winning the women’s singles title and helping the United States secure team gold with her short program performance.

The psychology student enrolled at UCLA in fall 2023, a year after retiring from elite figure skating following the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she placed sixth in single skating. But by the end of her freshman year – and after a nearly two-year hiatus from skating – Liu had returned to consistent training with the goal of competing once again.

In less than a year, the Oakland local had done just that, and more.

Liu took silver at the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January – less than a year after returning to the sport. She topped the achievement by earning gold at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships, recording the top scores in both the short and free programs and becoming the first American woman to earn the world championship title since 2006.

And Liu made history yet again in 2026, becoming the first American woman to earn an individual figure skating gold medal at the Olympics in 24 years with a final score of 226.79.

But the path to victory was not set in stone for the 20-year-old.

Liu’s podium hopes began Tuesday with the short program – just over a two-and-a-half-minute skate containing fewer technical elements and even less room for error. Skating to “Promise” by Laufey, Liu completed three triple jumps and one double.

The Olympian’s lone combination – a triple Lutz-triple loop – was the highest-scoring element of her routine and the most difficult combination attempted in the short program, earning her a 10% bonus for its placement in the second half. Though the triple loop was ruled under-rotated, Liu still received an 11.71 on the element, lifting her to a 76.59 and into third place overall.

But an Olympian cannot medal on one skate alone, and Liu needed a near-perfect four-minute free skate Thursday to make history.

And she delivered.

Liu performed a free skate set to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park Suite,” smiling through seven triples and four doubles to earn a 150.20 – the highest score of the night. She did not receive a negative grade of execution on any element and posted a routine-high 12.98 on her triple Lutz-double Axel-double toe loop combination.

And though Liu did not attempt a triple axel or any quad jumps – elements that carry higher base values – her clean free skate vaulted her into first place, above Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai, who finished with silver and bronze, respectively.

The singles title marked Liu’s first individual Olympic gold, but it was not her only medal in Milan.

On Feb. 6, Liu contributed her short program to the U.S. gold medal performance in the team event, finishing second behind Sakamoto and earning a 74.90 despite a quarter under-rotation call on her triple loop.

The psychology student will return to Westwood not only as a two-time Olympian but as a two-time gold medalist, completing a comeback few would have predicted when she stepped away from the sport.