Alysa Liu surges into medal range
as US teammates stumble in Olympic short program
[February 18, 2026]
By DAVE SKRETTA
MILAN (AP) — Alysa Liu is left to carry the hopes of the “Blade
Angels” into the women's free skate at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
The reigning world champion was the only one of American's vaunted
figure skating trio to put herself in contention for gold after the
short program on Tuesday night. Liu landed a triple lutz-triple
loop, the hardest combination that any woman attempted, and sat only
two points back of leader Ami Nakai and right behind her Japanese
teammate Kaori Sakamoto on the leaderboard.
“I am really happy about how I skated,” Liu said, “and my siblings,
my best friends and a ton of my family is out there. And I saw them
on the warmup. I also saw them during my program, so, I don’t know.
It was a really cool moment, because they never come to watch like
this. I’m really glad I did super well. I felt super grounded and I
connected with my program on another level.”
Things didn't go nearly as well for the rest of the American team
Tuesday night.
Isabeau Levito was dinged for under-rotating her triple loop and got
leveled down for her step sequence, which is where she tends to pick
up points on the competition. It left her in eighth place and a long
shot to climb her way onto the podium Thursday night.
Amber Glenn, the three-time reigning U.S. champion, was right in the
medal mix until her final jump.
After landing a huge opening triple axel — Glenn and Nakai were the
only ones in the women's field to attempt the 3 1/2-revolution jump
— she kept the momentum going with a triple flip-triple toe loop.
But something seemed amiss as Glenn approached a triple loop, and
she wound up bailing out of it. The resulting double loop became an
invalid element and earned her no points.
The lost points on the jump, somewhere in the range of seven or
eight, took away any chance of being a medal contender.
“I had it,” Glenn told her coach, Damon Allen, as she tried to hold
back the tears stepping off the ice.
“It's not over,” he replied, giving her a hug.
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Alysa Liu of the United States competes during the women's short
program figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan,
ItNatacha aly, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Pisarenko)
It certainly was not the way Glenn wanted to end a
night that began with the euphoria of a message from Madonna, the
“Queen of Pop.” Her song “Like a Prayer” serves as the soundtrack to
Glenn's free skate, and Madonna had seen a clip of the short program
and sent a video to Glenn, telling her, “Go get that gold.”
Glenn already has one from the team event on the opening weekend of
the Winter Games. Liu also has one from that event.
Now, it's up to Liu if the Americans are going to bring home a medal
from the individual competition.
She also can salvage what has been a largely frustrating Olympics
for U.S. Figure Skating. While it won the team event, ice dancers
Madison Chock and Evan Bates were left with a bittersweet silver
medal thanks in part to some questionable scoring by the French
judge, while two-time world champion and Olympic favorite Ilia
Malinin crashed out of the men's free skate.
Liu has experience on this stage, having finished sixth at the 2022
Beijing Games. She also has a carefree attitude after going through
a brief retirement, which allowed her to learn a whole lot about
herself and put figure skating into perspective.
Liu was asked whether she thinks she can beat the Japanese on
Thursday night.
“I don’t think about stuff like that,” she replied. “Whether I beat
them or not is not my goal. My goal is just to do my programs and
share my story and I don’t need to be over or under anyone to do
that.”
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