I watched both of her gold-winning performances, but I hadn’t seen her at the gala afterward. She is such a bundle of pure joy.
If you ever see me scroll past this video call the ambulance because something is wrong with me pic.twitter.com/4rNKXLg83F
— beccie 🪩 (@nothowyouhoped) February 26, 2026
I think she achieved something that zen masters and martial arts masters talk about. She’s beyond worrying about her performance, and completing each jump, and sweating the details. She’s just having fun with her mastery. It all just flows and she doesn’t really have to try because she’s got it all down.
There’s also a Youtube short of her showing up for her flight home and the whole gate area immediately recognizes her and starts cheering.
I watched her exhibition performance, and it brought back memories of Sarah Hughes in 2002. That was an instance of an overwhelming talent taking the gold ahead of Michelle Kwan (whose “turn it was for a gold”) and a formidable Irina Slutskaya. Hughes’ 4 minute free skate left me speechless. Liu’s performance had the same effect. It is so rare to see such human perfection; I live fore those moments.
Karma is not always a bitch…
Most skaters get extremely nervous and tighten up in the big competitions. This is why Scott Hamilton recommends “skating stupid”, i.e., rely on your training. You could just see Malinin melt down during his disastrous free skate. In contrast, Alysa Liu just looked radiantly happy during her entire free skate. The only times I remember seeing anything close to that level of joy was with Tara Lipinski and Rudy Galindo.