{"id":218195,"date":"2026-03-13T14:46:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218195\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:46:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:46:52","slug":"its-oakland-hometown-crowd-fills-plaza-to-celebrate-olympic-gold-medalist-alysa-liu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/218195\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s Oakland\u2019: Hometown crowd fills plaza to celebrate Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu"},"content":{"rendered":"

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE FLOODED into Frank Ogawa Plaza outside of Oakland City Hall on Thursday to celebrate the return of Alysa Liu, 20, after her gold medal win in the women\u2019s singles figure skating competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games.<\/p>\n

The downtown Oakland celebration comes after weeks of planning<\/a> by the mayor\u2019s office, partner organizations, and Liu\u2019s team, who asked for a fixed-location party in lieu of a parade through the city.<\/p>\n

Sporting a bold striped brown and blonde hairstyle that she wore during her Olympic performance, Liu expressed her deep gratitude to the attendees and described her journey to fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been crazy how much visibility I have right now,\u201d said Liu. \u201cI would have never expected that, especially for figure skaters, we don\u2019t really blow up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Olympic gold medalist in women\u2019s figure skating Alysa Liu attends the rally in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 12, 2026 celebrating her accomplishment. (Andres Jimenez Larios\/ Bay City News)<\/p>\n

The Olympic athlete said she was proud to be a source of inspiration for people who feel connected to her story while simultaneously asking people to respect her personal space.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentation matters so much,\u201d said Liu. \u201cI\u2019m always so grateful and just honored that I could be that for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liu, who was raised in Richmond by Chinese immigrants and began her skating career at the Oakland Ice Center, is the first woman from the United States to win any individual medal in figure skating at the Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2006. Videos of her Winter Games championship performance to Donna Summer\u2019s \u201cMacArthur Park\u201d and exhibition skate to \u201cStateside\u201d by PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson quickly gained popularity across the country, with each receiving millions of views on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and her office helped organize the Thursday rally to officially welcome Liu back to the Bay Area. She presented Liu with a symbolic key to the city for her contributions as an athlete.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Oakland celebrates one of our own, we show up,\u201d said Lee. \u201cToday we celebrate one of our greatest. Alysa is Oakland through her determination, her creativity and her courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Thursday afternoon rally featured performances by local high schoolers, lion dancers, and a surprise appearance by singer-songwriter Kehlani.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Singer-songwriter Kehlani sings during a rally celebrating Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 12, 2026. Liu is the first US athlete to win gold in women\u2019s figure skating since the 2006 Winter Games. (Andres Jimenez Larios\/ Bay City News)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLeft: (L-R) Jennifer Le, Sylvia Wang, Judy Abe, and Tina Ma with hair in the style of Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu. Right: Mascots for several Bay Area sports teams pose during a rally celebrating Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Andres Jimenez Larios\/ Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Most people stayed for the 90-minute rally, with some electing to use a colorful rally towel inscribed with Liu\u2019s Crew to shield them from the direct afternoon sun.<\/p>\n

Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, whose district encompasses large swaths of Oakland, was wearing a bright lime green baseball jersey with Alameda Co. written across the front. She was excited to see so people united by Liu and how her accomplishments showcased the positive traits of the Town.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo all of those haters on Oakland, take a look at what\u2019s happening right now because this is the real Oakland,\u201d said Fortunato Bas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Bay Area sports organizations showed up to signal their support and love for Liu, such as the Oakland Ballers, the San Jose Sharks, the San Jose Barracuda, and the Golden State Valkyries.<\/p>\n

Representation matters so much.<\/p>\n

Alysa Liu, Olympic gold medalist<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Kristi Yamaguchi, the first Asian American woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics and a fellow Bay Area professional figure skater, also congratulated Liu alongside other decorated athletes.<\/p>\n

Oakland resident Alec Sloane was excited to be surrounded by other people celebrating the sporting community in Oakland. Sloane said he believed Liu\u2019s accomplishments demonstrated Oakland\u2019s status as a major sporting city, despite the departure of major teams like the Athletics<\/a> and Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a sports town and we\u2019re a championship town, just look at her for proof!\u201d said Sloane. \u201cI grew up in Oakland and you can kind of imagine yourself in her position, and it makes you realize people from here can do anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nLeft: Stephanie Tran and her daughter Aaliyah attend a rally celebrating Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu. Right: Steph Mackler and her daughter take a photo with a carboard cutout of Alysa Liu during a rally celebrating Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu\u00a0 in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Andres Jimenez Larios\/ Bay City News)<\/p>\n

Playing with one of the Alysa Liu-branded rally towels was Aaliyah and her mother Stephanie Tran. She said it was her pleasure, as an Oakland resident and Asian American woman, to participate in the welcome home rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c(Alysa) is about representation for her community and to be able to see a female Asian athlete from Oakland celebrated, not just so decorated, but to win gold is great,\u201d said Tran. \u201cShe\u2019s inspiring a lot of young girls, and hopefully my daughter too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without missing a beat after being asked to make a final remark, Liu said two words. \u201cIt\u2019s Oakland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE FLOODED into Frank Ogawa Plaza outside of Oakland City Hall on Thursday to celebrate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64618,18367,2351,24687,22390,42151,95302,18739,2872,77970,77500,63419,143,6110,145,144,100036,10012,97,98],"class_list":["post-218195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alysa-liu","tag-asian-american","tag-barbara-lee","tag-celebrations","tag-chinese","tag-figure-skating","tag-frank-ogawa-plaza","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-immigrants","tag-kehlani","tag-kristi-yamaguchi","tag-milan-cortina-winter-olympics","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-ballers","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-olympians","tag-olympics","tag-san-jose-barracuda","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218195","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=218195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}