Alysa Liu has now competed in her second Winter Olympics, becoming one of the biggest stars of 2026 after her performance at Milano Cortina 2026. Going into Milan, Liu had numerous gold medals to her name, including the 2025 World Championships in Boston, but wasn't able to capture a medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
Liu began her trip to Milan in the figure skating team event, competing for the USA alongside other skaters such as Ilia Malinin and fellow "Blade Angels" member Amber Glenn. The United States secured 69 total points, including nine from Liu in the qualification round, helping her earn her first Olympic gold medal. Team USA narrowly edged silver medalist Japan (68) by one point.
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But Liu's performance at the women's singles event was arguably her best. Skating to "MacArthur Park Suite" by Donna Summer, the 20-year-old skater finished with a 226.79 total score, including 150.20 in the free skate, securing her a second gold medal in Milan. And, similar to the team event, she barely beat out Japan's Kaori Sakamoto (224.90) by less than two.
Amid Liu's rising stardom, which has seen her Instagram follower count increase by about seven million, many fans have been making a similar mistake regarding the figure skater, struggling to pronounce her name correctly. Some have been calling her "Loo," while others have been saying "Lee-ooh."
However, in a recent interview with Newsweek, Liu corrected the common mistake, explaining that her name is pronounced "Lee-oh," though she noted that she doesn't mind if it is mispronounced.
"Technically, this is how my family says my name," Liu said. "Ah-lee-sa Lee-oh. That's technically how you say my name. But Uh-liss-uh is how my friends call me. And that's how the world calls me. And then my last name, a lot of people say "Lee-ooh," "Loo." I personally don't care because technically the right way is "Lee-oh. But that can be hard to pronounce, and yeah, I don't expect people to know how to say that."
"Lee-oh" will be back in action beginning March 24, when she returns to Europe to perform in the 2026 ISU World Championships in Prague.
