Alysa Liu landed in Milan, Italy, for the Winter Olympic Games as a well-known figure skater.
She won her first national title for the United States at 13 and then went back-to-back at 14. She performed at the 2022 Beijing Games. After returning from retirement, she won the world championship in women’s figure skating in 2025.
As she began her journey in Europe, Liu had a strong Instagram following of over 200,000. Among her peers, she had one of the highest totals at the Milan Olympics.
Liu was popular.
Three weeks later, after winning two gold medals and having a performance of a lifetime on Thursday, Liu has become the talk of not only the figure skating or sports world but the media in general.
Since her individual women’s figure skating win, Liu has gained over 1 million followers on her personal Instagram.
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On Friday night, she surpassed Russia’s Alexandra “Sasha” Vyacheslavovna Ignatova as the most-followed figure skater on the popular social media site.
Liu surpassed Sasha’s 1.8 million followers and hasn’t slowed down, now with over 2.6 million accounts subscribed to her page.
In three weeks, she’s gained 2 million followers, more than any figure skater has ever accrued on the platform.
It’s a metric rise for Liu, who didn’t think she would ever skate competitively again after the last Olympics in Beijing. She was burned out and didn’t even try to win a medal in China, saying she was there to have fun and say goodbye to figure skating.
Four years later, though, Liu rediscovered her love for figure skating and said after her gold medal win that she’s happiest on the ice with a packed crowd watching her.
She has one final performance on Saturday at the Olympic Exhibition Gala, where she will be the last skater to take the ice before the finale. Liu will be performing alongside one of her favorite songs, “Stateside” by PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson.
