Winter Olympics: Alysa Liu’s shine is gold as she becomes first American woman since 2002 to stand atop podium

MILAN — Alysa Liu carried the flag of the “Blade Angels” into Thursday night’s free skate all the way to the top of the podium.

Ranked third after the women’s Olympic short program, Liu was one of the final three skaters on Thursday. Skating to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park,” she was exuberant, graceful, smiling all the way in a confident performance.

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When her total score landed — 226.79, good enough for first place with two skaters left to go — she leaped off the kiss-and-cry couch, made a heart with her hands, and mouthed “I love y’all!” to the crowd.

Only two Japanese skaters remained between Liu and gold. Kaori Sakamoto followed with a solid, but less-than-perfect routine that was not enough to surpass Liu. Then came Ami Nakai, whose short skate was more than two points higher than Liu’s. A clean routine and the gold would be hers. It wasn’t; she had a minor hiccup midway through.

A tense moment awaited as the judges tallied their scores. And when they did, Liu was on top — edging Sakamoto by 1.89 points. Nakai, just 17, took the bronze.

American Amber Glenn rallied from a disappointing short program to finish fifth, while Isabeau Levito finished 12th.

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Liu, 20, earned the first individual Olympic medal for an American woman since Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006 — the first gold medal winner since Sarah Hughes in 2002. And she did so with a smile, marking a triumph and return to glory for American women’s skating.

“The feelings I felt out there were calm, happy, confident,” she said after coming off the ice, drawing out pauses between each word. “Of course I had fun. But I’ve been having fun all the time.”

Liu’s story is as quirky as it is remarkable. The U.S. national champion in 2019 and 2020 and a 2022 Olympian, Liu decided after the Beijing Olympics that she’d simply had enough of skating. She retired, pursuing the kind of life an Olympic figure skater simply can’t have: college, hanging out with friends, traveling. She even journeyed all the way to Mount Everest Base Camp with a friend, a long way from the rink.

But something nagged at her to return, and two years ago, she decided to give skating another opportunity. She succeeded beyond all expectation, skating well enough to win the world championships last year.

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“She’s not like us,” her coach Phillip DiGuglielmo said after her victory. “The rest of us here would be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m nervous. I can’t do this. I have a million voices in my head.’ She has one voice in her head and it says, ‘I got this.’”

Along with Glenn and Levito, Liu has formed the “Blade Angels,” the talented Team USA trio that’s captured the hearts of skating fans and the promotional eye of NBC. Skating observers predicted that they could engineer a medal sweep in Milan; while that didn’t happen, the Blade Angels have (mostly) enjoyed their time in Milan.

Earlier in the night, Glenn skated a redemptive program, making up for her struggles two nights earlier. Thirteenth after the short program, Glenn rallied to miss the podium by just 4.25 points.

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“Going from 13th to the podium is unheard of, so I wasn’t exactly expecting it,” Glenn said. “And even if I had been completely perfect today, it still wouldn’t have been enough.”

A few skaters later, Levito suffered a fall during her routine and ended with a score of 202.80, ending her medal hopes.

“I do my best when I think less when it comes to skating. The majority of it is mental,” Levito said afterward, her voice soft, a gentle smile on her face. “I kind of just went on autopilot (after the fall) because in training I just go, go, go a lot of repetitions. I do my best when I’m thinking less.”

The stage, ultimately, was set for Liu. A month ago, at U.S. Nationals, she posted a 147.80 in her free skate. Thursday, she needed to be better than that to win gold. She was, scoring 150.20 — nearly three points better than everyone else.

And now she’s joined the elite club of just seven other American women figure skaters to win gold at the Olympics.