Bay Area officials and businesses were filled with pride when Alysa Liu, a Bay Area-raised figure skater, won two gold medals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. They are showing their gratitude with public art, social media shoutouts and more.
Alysa Liu became one of the most celebrated gold medalists after the Olympics because of her inspiring backstory and joyful skating style. She started training for figure skating at age five and had a wildly successful career when she started competing. In 2022 at age sixteen she retired due to burnout from having an extremely demanding training schedule. During Liu’s retirement she attended college at UCLA and started to live a regular life free from intense training and strict rules. While on a ski trip in 2024 she realized how much she missed figure skating, so she started training again, but on her own terms.
At the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Alysa Liu scored two gold medals, one from the figure skating team event and the second from the women’s individual singles event. After her wins, multiple Bay Area businesses congratulated her on social media, and some even offered congratulatory gifts. Fentons Creamery, a historic ice cream parlor located on Piedmont Avenue, offered her free ice cream for life on Instagram, stating that,“from the ice to the world stage, you continue to inspire our entire community. What an incredible achievement, and what a moment for Oakland. Ice cream for life? Seriously. We mean it.”, The creamery also created an ice cream flavor in her honor called, “Alysa’s Gold”, which consists of caramel ice cream blended with crushed Golden Oreos and a caramel swirl. They also plan on releasing a milkshake titled, “Alysa’s Halo”, which is made to resemble Liu’s dyed hair.
Oakland officials organized an official Alysa Liu celebration rally, which will take place on Thursday, March 12th, at the Frank Ogawa Plaza. The doors open at 9:00 AM and the program begins at 12:00 PM. The event is sold out, but the people who did get tickets got them for free. Alysa Liu herself will be speaking at the rally as part of the program and there will be food, alcohol-free beverages and water available for purchase from food trucks and beverage stations. visitoakland.com states that Liu turned down the offer for a parade because she wanted “a celebration that shines a light on Oakland’s vibrant community and talented local artists.”
If you want to celebrate Alysa Liu’s wins without getting out of your car, consider checking out the mural and billboards of her around Oakland. The mural, which was painted by three members from the Bay Area urban street art collective, The Illuminaries, was inspired by a mural in Los Angeles, CA, by muralist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. After he posted photos of the mural in-progress to social media, Bay Area locals speculated if people in Oakland were going to paint one as well. The mural is located at the corner of 43rd Street and Telegraph Avenue and depicts Liu making a “thizz face”, which was popularized during the 2000s Hyphy movement in Oakland. The billboards celebrating her wins are visible from the Interstate-880 and one reads, “Congrats Alysa! Oakland’s hometown hero!”