Six months after standing on top of the podium at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu has added some prestigious Hollywood hardware to her trophy case. The 20-year-old figure skating phenom officially took home the award for Best Breakthrough Athlete at the 2026 ESPY Awards on Wednesday night, capping off one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history.
The star-studded event, held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City, saw Liu receive one of the loudest standing ovations of the night when actor Kevin Hart handed her the trophy. The beloved winter sports star beat out top talent including Drake Maye, Fernando Mendoza, and Macklin Celebrini for the fan-voted honor.
Stepping up to the microphone in a dramatic, backless deep-brown Louis Vuitton halter gown, Liu delivered an incredibly touching speech reflecting on her complex relationship with skating.
“I’ve been in my sport since I was 5 years old and I had some really rough times in it, I took two years off,” the Oakland native and UCLA student shared onstage. “So, for me, this really feels like I broke through in my own way, for myself, and for my sport.”
Liu’s ESPY win serves as the ultimate punctuation mark on a jaw-dropping competitive arc. After becoming the youngest-ever U.S. National Champion at age 13, she walked away from the sport entirely following the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
However, her 2024 decision to return on her own terms sparked absolute magic on the ice. At the 2026 Winter Games, she made history as the first U.S. woman to secure two gold medals at a single Olympics—reigning supreme in both the women’s singles and the team event alongside the self-dubbed “Blade Angels”. Her masterclass free skate to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park Suite” broke a 24-year gold medal drought for American women, securing her status as a legendary figure in the sport.
