{"id":188533,"date":"2026-02-22T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188533\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T07:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T07:25:18","slug":"milan-cortina-2026-oaklands-olympic-gold-medalist-alysa-liu-inspires-young-athletes-at-her-local-ice-rink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188533\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan Cortina 2026: Oakland’s Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu inspires young athletes at her local ice rink"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Oakland’s own Alysa Liu became the first U.S individual gold medal winner in women’s figure skating in 24 years.<\/p>\n

Liu wowed the judges at the Winter Olympics on Thursday, but in the Bay Area, she has been stunning many at her local ice rink for decades.<\/p>\n

The future generation of figure skaters was in awe as they stepped inside Oakland Ice Center — where Liu trained — and saw her photos throughout the facility.<\/p>\n

“It’s crazy that she lives in Oakland. So close to our home, and she is an Olympian,” said 10-year-old Alex Olsen.<\/p>\n

At the Olympics, Liu wowed the world. But at home, she has been a legend for decades.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Oakland’s Alysa Liu gives US its first women’s figure skating Olympic gold in 24 years<\/a><\/p>\n

“Just the sound of her spinning and jumping is like, everyone is silent, and we are all against the board in awe,” said Emily Burian, a recreational figure skater who has shared the ice with Liu.<\/p>\n

Those who’ve been on the ice with her understand the challenges.<\/p>\n

“There is a lot of strength work that you need to keep up. The technical abilities that she has, and then it’s mental effort as well. Everything is fear. Like, you might fall on this jump,” said Ali Smith, a recreational figure skater. “I think that is where Alysa stands out — her mental fortitude.”<\/p>\n

The walls at the Oakland Ice Center tell the story of her wins from 2016 all the way to 2025 when she won the women’s championship after coming back from retirement.<\/p>\n

In 2019, ABC7 Eyewitness News Reporter Lyanne Melendez interviewed Liu after she became the youngest-ever U.S. women’s national champion. Liu was 13 years old and even then, she had a clear vision.<\/p>\n

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Oakland’s Alysa Liu was making history at 13 and had Olympic dreams<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC7 News reporter Lyanne Melendez spoke with Oakland’s own Alysa Liu in 2019 when she was just 13, and thinking about her future Olympic dreams.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, Olympics too but for now, just improving myself,” said 13-year-old Liu.<\/p>\n

That’s how Laurice Guerin remembers Liu. She was her English teacher at Oakland School for the Arts.<\/p>\n

“She was really, really of the big smile you see. She had that in the sixth grade. She would have her hair in a bun every day,” Guerin said. “I remember her working hard, working really hard. She had very neat handwriting, and she was very popular and had a lot of friends.”<\/p>\n

Right after school, Liu would cross the street and go straight to the ice rink.<\/p>\n

“By the time sixth grade was over, she was on independent study, because she was in so many competitions, missing school sometimes because they traveled so much. So, I thought she would do something. But gold medal Olympics — I didn’t have an idea about that,” Guerin said.<\/p>\n

Now many see Liu and know it’s possible.<\/p>\n

“She ice skates right here, and maybe she would have come here today,” said 11-year-old Annabel Gousman.<\/p>\n

“I feel like one day, I can pop in and see her,” said 12-year-old Eleanor Ma.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Oakland’s own Alysa Liu became the first U.S individual gold medal winner in women’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[88571,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-188533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-88571","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}