With her bleached hair, a lip piercing, and bold eyeliner, American figure skater Alysa Liu is breaking the rules of her sport, driving TikTok wild and accumulating more than 5 million followers on Instagram. On Thursday, February 19, she claimed the gold medal in the women’s individual event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, skating a Donna Summer title. Here are a few tracks that populate the playlist of the cool kid of figure skating.
Dressed in a gown shimmering with a prophetic gold, Alysa Liu, 20, commanded the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on Thursday, February 19, delivering a stunning long program that fused a rebellious grace with a triple lutz and a double axel across nearly four minutes set to MacArthur Park Suite by Donna Summer. You don’t have to be a seasoned figure skating expert to grasp how the American is tearing up her discipline, both technically and stylistically.
Former child prodigy and the youngest United States champion at just 13, the American had retired in 2022, at the age of 16, exhausted by the demands of the sport’s highest tier. In interviews with Elle (USA), Alysa Liu revisits this traumatic period. “We were told things like ‘Don’t eat that’ or ‘You can’t drink water,’ because of water weight. Imagine telling a 13-year-old that he can’t drink water because of the weight of water!”
Mid-Grunge, Mid-Emo
She ultimately chose to return to competition at 18, insisting on non-negotiable terms. “When I came back, I told my team that I wanted to pick my songs and help design my costumes. I developed my own style and tastes,” she told American sports outlet The Player’s Tribune. In her comeback year, she made waves by finishing first at the World Championships in Boston. In 2026, she delivered the United States its first women’s Olympic title in 24 years (Sarah Hughes in 2002). With Team USA, Alysa Liu also won the team gold alongside her compatriot Amber Glenn. “They can’t stand to see two woke girls win,” Glenn recently wrote on social media in response to hateful comments from MAGA extremists following their victory.
With her mid-grunge, mid-emo style, bleached hair streaks, and a frenulum piercing beneath her upper lip (a self-made piercing), Alysa Liu has established herself as the alternative face of these Winter Games, especially on social media; her Instagram boasts five million followers and fan edits flood TikTok. These edits celebrate her sense of humor and quirky vibe, and she also stands out for her musical tastes, diverging from the usual The Nutcracker and Swan Lake pairings that dominate rink playlists.
Six Tracks in Alysa Liu’s Headphones
ADÉLA, DeathByDevotion. In an interview with Fader, Alysa Liu explains that if she were to release an album, it would be named after the song DeathByDevotion by Slovak singer Adéla. Having passed through the reality show Dream Academy (from which the group KATSEYE emerged), Adéla collaborates with Grimes on her EP The Provocateur, blending hyperpop influences. Noted for her daring style, she even stopped by Paris during the last Fashion Week.
Lady Gaga, Bad Romance. With seven months to go before the Milan Winter Games, Liu hadn’t completed her free-skating program of four minutes, unlike her rivals. At that stage, her program was simply a draft built around a medley of Lady Gaga tunes including Bad Romance, Chromatica II, and Paparazzi.
PinkPantheress, Passion. Liu would love to skate to PinkPantheress’s alt-pop sound. The British singer even sent her a supportive video before the 2026 Olympics!
Laufey, Promise. The nu-jazz track by Icelandic singer Laufey accompanies her short program for the second consecutive season. This song has become the anthem of her sporting career and Laufey invited Liu onstage at a concert last autumn. “I think she describes my life very well,” Liu tells NBC. The daughter of a Chinese political refugee, Alysa Liu shares Laufey’s Chinese roots. Promise is the piece she chose for her team event, won by Team USA.
Donna Summer, MacArthur Park Suite. Alysa Liu uses a very specific version of this disco anthem, which propelled her to gold on Thursday, February 19 at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games. It was her coach Phillip DiGuglielmo and her choreographer Massimo Scali who exposed her to the 17-minute version of the piece, which the 20-year-old immediately embraced, skating the first four minutes of it on Thursday night.
