Figure skater Alysa Liu is receiving a hero’s welcome from her hometown in California as she returns from the Winter Olympics

Figure skating icon Alysa Liu received a very warm welcome when she returned to California after winning two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan – becoming the first American woman to claim victory in the individual event since 2002.

The 20-year-old took home the gold after a series of remarkable routines in Italy, a feat that has made her a true hero in the Golden State, where her hometown hosted a host of festivities to mark her return from Milan.

Liu, who retired from figure skating at the age of 16 after performing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, landed in San Francisco on Feb. 23, as the crew of her Delta flight opened the celebration with a gold tribute, befitting a champion of her caliber.

A viral clip shared on TikTok showed the Clovis, CA native, who had grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, walking onto the jet bridge and discovering gold balloons and tinsel curtains around the terminal doorway.

Just before the ice skating princess stepped off the plane, a Delta employee said, “Alysa, your hard work, genius and passion 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 had filled her friends’ cars with her bags.

They captioned the clip: “Rare aesthetic: your girlfriend wins the Olympics and takes the whole village home.”

On her first night back, Liu dined at Italian restaurant Trabocco, said a Facebook post from the restaurant.

Owner and chef Giuseppe Naccarelli shared images of the skater next to a tiramisu with ‘Congratulations’ written in chocolate.

Local ice cream shop Fentons Creamery has also offered the athlete ‘ice cream for life’ and sundaes on ‘standby’.

There are also plenty of Liu billboards throughout the city.

The city also announced it would honor Liu with a “community-wide celebration.”

Liu was considered a strong contender at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where she finished seventh overall, the highest placing 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 her magical performance, she shocked fans when she revealed that she was trading in her skating for a normal teenage life with her friends, followed by her enrollment at UCLA, where she is still a student.

In 2022, she announced her retirement in an Instagram post: “I started skating when I was five, so that’s about 11 years on the ice and it’s been a crazy 11 years,” she wrote.

She noted that her ultimate goal was to compete in the Olympics, which she achieved.

“I made the decision for myself a while ago, long before the Olympics. My only goal was to go to the Olympics. I’m only 16. I want to do other things,” she said, before admitting that her decision was “selfish” and made “purely for myself.”

She told me later Cosmopolitan that she wanted to be closer to her friends, thinking about the nights she spent alone and wishing she had company.

“I wanted nothing more than to just be with my friends and my family, and skating had nothing to do with that at the time,” said Liu, who had been homeschooled until that point.

She also wanted to go to public school, she noted.

“I lived at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, in a dorm by myself. I ate their food. I went to the rink, skated, ate lunch there and skated some more. I went back to the dorm. I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t see anything. I was just there. And so I thought, ‘Skating isn’t worth it.’ This is not worth it,” she told the Associated Press.

After two years at UCLA, Liu revealed she was retiring, confessing that skiing helped remind her of her love for the sport.

“I hadn’t felt that adrenaline rush, I think, since I stopped skating. It’s so much like skiing. And so after I skied, I was like, ‘Wait, let me get on the ice and see what it feels like,'” she said.

When she got back to the rink and was able to complete every move perfectly, she decided to make her official comeback to the sport.

She told Cosmopolitan that skating “gave me something to be strong for,” adding that she has fallen in love with every aspect of the sport again.

“Now I love skating dresses and helping with the design process. The sport is kind of an outlet for me. I love dance and music, so it’s all in one,” she says.

“I wanted to choose my own music, help design my own costumes, because I developed my own taste and my own style. This is my sport, my program. Why wouldn’t I want to wear what I want to wear?” she said The Players’ Stand.

Now that she had gotten back on the ice, Liu admitted that she couldn’t imagine leaving again.

“So many people ask me if I’m going to retire after this year, and I’ve really thought about their question. I can’t imagine not skating in a year. I can’t imagine I’ll be off the ice next year,” the athlete told Cosmopolitan.