Figure Skater Alysa Liu Receives Hero’s Welcome From Her Hometown California As She Returns From Winter Olympics

A skating iconAlysa Liu received a warm welcome as she returned to California after winning two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan—becoming the first American woman to win in each event since 2002.

The 20-year-old brought home the gold after pulling off a series of stunning performances in Italy, a feat that has turned him into a true hero in the Golden State, where his hometown organized a series of celebrations to mark his return to Milan.

Liu, who first retired from skiing as a 16-year-old after appearing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, suffered a concussion in San Francisco on Feb. 23, when his Delta flight crew started the celebrations with a gold medal befitting a champion of his caliber.

A viral clip shared on TikTok showed the Clovis, CA, San Francisco Bay Area native climbing a bridge to find gold balloons and tin curtains near the terminal entrance.

Just before the skating princess got off the plane, a Delta employee gushed, “Alysa, your hard work, intelligence, and love have made us all incredibly proud.”

In another video, Liu’s friends revealed that they drove to San Francisco to pick up their friend, who filled his friends’ cars with both of his bags.

They took the clip, “Extraordinary beauty: Your friend wins the Olympics and brings the whole town home with him.”

On his first night back, Liu dined at Italian restaurant Trabocco, according to a Facebook post from the restaurant.

Owner and chef Giuseppe Naccarelli shared photos of the publisher alongside a tiramisu that had “Congratulations” written on it in chocolate.

Local ice cream shop Fentons Creamery also offered the athlete “ice cream of a lifetime” and sundaes “on the sidelines.”

Throughout the city, there are also many Liu boards.

The city also said it would be honoring Liu with a “community-wide celebration.”

Liu was considered a strong contender during the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where she finished seventh, the highest place among American women.

The star athlete had moved to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to focus on honing her skills—an experience she called incredibly “lonely.”

However, after performing magic, he shocked fans when he revealed that he was trading in his snowboards to live a normal teenage life with his friends, followed by his enrollment at UCLA, where he was still a student.

In 2022, he revealed his retirement in an Instagram post: “I started skiing when I was 5 so that’s about 11 years on the ice and 11 crazy years,” he wrote.

He mentioned that his main goal was to compete in the Olympics, which he achieved.

“I made a decision a long time ago, before the Olympics. My only goal was to go to the Olympics. I’m only 16 years old. I want to do other things,” he said before admitting that his decision was “selfish” and “made for me.”

He later told Cosmopolitan that he wanted to be closer to his friends, remembering the nights he spent alone, wishing he was with someone.

“I wanted nothing more than to be with my friends and my family, and skiing had nothing to do with that at the time,” said Liu, who had been home-schooled until then.

He also wanted to study at a public school, he noted.

“I was staying at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, in a dorm by myself. I was eating their food. I went to the rink, I skated, I had lunch there, I skated a little bit. I went back to the dorm. I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t see anything. I was just there. And with all that, I was like, ‘Skating is not worth it.’ Like, this is not fair,” he told the Associated Press.

After two years at UCLA, Liu revealed that he was coming out of retirement, admitting that skiing helped him remember his love for the sport.

“I hadn’t felt that adrenaline rush, I think, since I stopped skiing. It felt like skiing. And after skiing, I said, ‘Wait, let me go skiing and see what it’s like,'” he said.

When he returned to the ring and was able to complete all the moves properly, he decided to officially return to the sport.

She told Cosmopolitan that skiing “gave me something to be strong about,” adding that she has fallen back in love with all aspects of the sport.

“Now, I like skating clothes and helping with the design process. This sport is a kind of shop for me. I like dance and music, so it’s all in one,” he said.

“I wanted to choose my music, help design my costumes, because I developed my taste and my style. This is my game, my show. Why don’t I want to wear what I want to wear?” he told the Players’ Tribune.

Now that he’s back on the ice, Liu admitted that he wasn’t thinking about leaving again.

“Many people ask me if I will stop retiring after this year, I really thought about their question. I can’t imagine that I won’t be able to skate next year,” the athlete told Cosmopolitan.