Sudden popularity: the beautiful champion surpasses even Eileen Gu
Alysa Liu has become the new social media star after her stunning gold medal in women’s figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina. The U.S. champion, who had 300,000 followers on Instagram before the Games, suddenly jumped to 5.3 million after the historic victory, achieved at the age of 20, gave her unparalleled visibility on the web and in the media, making her famous worldwide.
Alysa Liu became a global star after her flawless performance in the free program of the women’s skating final, where she charmed the judges and and managed to beat Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai, becoming the best in the world.
California-born, Chinese-born Alysa Liu surpassed on a social level another very famous athlete, freestyle champion Eileen Gu, also Sino-American but representing the Chinese team at the Olympics held in Italy. Gu also shined in Milan Cortina, winning one gold and two silver medals and becoming the most decorated freestyle skier in the history of the sport.
But in the special Instagram ranking now the freestyle champion, who has 3.7 million followers, has been overtaken by Alysa Liu. If she proceeds at this pace, the American skater could soon reach 10 million followers-she is definitely one of the most up-and-coming sportswomen in terms of popularity.
Both Liu and Gu are the daughters of immigrants who came to the United States from China, but they made two opposite life choices at a young age: the skater decided to continue competing for Team USA, while the freestyle champion wanted to compete for China.
In an interview with NBC News, Alysa Liu explained what allowed her to shine during the competition: “My goal was mainly to engage the audience. Between exercises, I took a moment to smile. I wanted to engage the audience, and I succeeded. I was at the peak of happiness on the ice, nothing could have made me surpass that level: I can share my art on the world’s biggest stage, how can you not be happy about that?”.
