Olympic champion Alysa Liu is getting real about how her political upbringing and family history impacted her view of the world as she competed with Team USA on the world stage.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the 20-year-old from the Bay Area talked about how politics plays a role in her life and how her father, Arthur Liu, fled China after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Her family’s history shaped their political involvement in the U.S., especially in social justice and civil rights.
“Going back to politics for a second, with these Olympics, there was definitely some tension around the political moment we’re in,” Liu said. “But I think what U.S. athletes do is share our stories. We’re Americans, and we all have such unique stories and backgrounds.”
She said that competing with Team USA was about sharing her story with the world.
“So we had a super diverse team, and I was proud that I could represent who I was on the big stage on behalf of Americans who could relate to me,” Liu said. “It’s all about sharing stories and having people feel for you. More empathy needs to happen.”
She talked about how she became involved in civic engagement at a young age and how she and her family would “hit up protests” and call their representatives to discuss topics that mattered to them.
“I mean, I was no student protest organizer or anything,” she said. “But me and my family go to protests. Sometimes we’d call our policymakers and write little letters. I remember doing that a lot when we were kids.”
Among the causes her family supported were climate change, elections, Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, and protests against ICE.
Her comments elicited a large online debate with different comments ranging from negative to affirmative. Conservatives had previously praised her family’s immigration story from China’s communist regime, but had reservations about her liberal political views.
One commenter noted that”MAGA really thought this girl was one of them,” while another commenter noted that they “wanted to turn her into the Sydney Sweeney of figure skating.” Others supported her right to freely express her opinions, with another commenter noting that “Those are her opinions. This is America. We’re allowed to agree to disagree. I’m just happy she represented America.”
The Olympic figure skating star has just finished her historic campaign at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, winning gold in the team and women’s singles events, becoming the first American woman to win gold in the Olympics since 2002’s Sarah Hughes. She also became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport since Sasha Cohen in 2006.
