{"id":7658,"date":"2026-02-24T10:27:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/?p=7658"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:27:28","slug":"this-isnt-the-same-alysa-you-remember-alysa-liu-didnt-just-win-gold-in-milan-she-detonated-the-gala-at-the-2026-milano-exhibition-gala-under-lights-fin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/?p=7658","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis isn\u2019t the same Alysa you remember.\u201d Alysa Liu didn\u2019t just win gold in Milan \u2014 she detonated the gala. At the 2026 Milano Exhibition Gala, under lights finally free of Olympic pressure, the 20-year-old champion traded her surgical competitive precision for something far more dangerous: pure, unfiltered joy. And the arena felt it instantly. Fresh off her dramatic climb from third place to Olympic gold, Liu stepped onto the ice in a shimmering navy dress and skated to the viral pulse of PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson\u2019s \u201cStateside.\u201d What followed wasn\u2019t just an exhibition program \u2014 it was a statement. Edges snapped with confidence. Hips hit the beat. Eye contact with the crowd turned 12,000 spectators into backup dancers. This wasn\u2019t the rigid, rule-bound world of figure skating. This was a disco-pop afterparty on Olympic ice. Two days after a harrowing comeback that rewrote her legacy, the skater who once walked away from the sport showed exactly why she returned. Not just to win \u2014 but to transform. There\u2019s video of the performance \u2014 and once the beat drops, you\u2019ll understand why Milan was left speechless… WATCH BELOW \ud83d\udc47"},"content":{"rendered":"

The key word is \u201cjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two days after Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu\u00a0won a gold medal with her free skate performance \u2014 the country\u2019s first women\u2019s singles gold in figure skating since Sarah Hughes\u2019 in 2002 \u2014 she was back for one last skate around the Milano Ice Skating Arena.<\/p>\n

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\"Alysa<\/p>\n

Liu joined her figure skating teammates Amber Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and\u00a0Ellie Kam and Danny O\u2019Shea to perform one final time in the February 21, 2026 Exhibition Gala.\u00a0Figure skating fans look forward to the event as much as the athletes do, because it\u2019s pure fun.<\/p>\n

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At the exhibition, skaters aren\u2019t hemmed in by the technical rules of Olympic competition. They can wear what they want (Kazakhstani figure skater\u00a0Mikhail Shaidorov dressed as a\u00a0panda<\/em>) and choose extra-fun music. Look no further than the Georgian pair skaters\u2019 number to The Immortals\u2019 \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d theme for evidence of the latter.<\/p>\n

While Liu, Malinin, and Glenn joined their teammates for a group skate during the event, all three also delivered gorgeous, lighter-than-air solo skates.<\/p>\n

What song did Alysa Liu skate to in the figure skating Exhibition Gala?<\/h2>\n
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\"Team<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Team USA\u2019s Alysa Liu performs during the Figure Skating Exhibition Gala on February 21, 2026 at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n

Photo: Qian Jun\/MB Media\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Liu, 20, skated to \u201cStateside\u201d by PinkPantheress featuring Zara Larsson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncredible work my good sis,\u201d PinkPantheress wrote in an Instagram story\u00a0sharing Liu\u2019s skate, also writing \u201cUGH SHE\u2019S SO FAB\u201d on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

In a sparkling blue dress and her signature striped hair, Liu skated flawlessly and busted out dance moves fit for, well, a PinkPantheress concert.<\/p>\n

\"Olympic<\/p>\n

Liu\u2019s gold-winning skate was also a major musical moment. She performed in a sparkling gold dress to Donna Summer\u2019s 1978 rendition of \u201cMacArthur Park,\u201d produced by Italian disco legend Giorgio Moroder. Liu brought the song to new audiences with her Milan Cortina moment, and Forbes reports that the song saw a 1292 percent increase in Spotify streams in the 48 hours following her routine.<\/p>\n

Amber Glenn, who missed a spot on the podium due to a technical error during her free skate, also looked buoyantly happy during her own Exhibition Gala turn. She performed to Lady Gaga\u2019s version of \u201cThat\u2019s Life,\u201d first popularized by Frank Sinatra, and looked wholly unfettered by pressure and just happy to be on the ice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The key word is \u201cjoy.\u201d Two days after Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu\u00a0won a gold medal with her free skate performance \u2014 the country\u2019s first women\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7660,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7658\/revisions\/7660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow48.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}