Alysa Liu's smile shines like gold in brilliant figure skating show at Olympics gala

Alysa Liu hasn't stopped smiling.

If there's one enduring image of these entire 2026 Winter Olympics, it might be that. The Team USA figure skating gold medalist, returned from retirement, an entirely new and improved version of herself, always smiling.

Liu didn't care about getting a medal.

The way she put it, she "just wanted the stage."

She got the stage and all that came with it.

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Liu capped off her brilliant journey at these Games with the exhibition gala on Saturday. It gives the best figure skaters one more chance on the ice with no judges or scores, just brilliance.

And she got the best honor: Liu was the final skater of the night, the finale.

And yeah, she was smiling:

THE SPARKLE AND GLOW IN ALYSA LIU'S GALA SKATE. 🤌 #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/bDTycHaL9n

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Liu came back from retirement a much different skater than she once was.

She couldn't land the most difficult moves anymore. But she also had much less weight on her shoulders.

So she simply skated with joy, found technical perfection and managed to make it artistically wonderful, too.

Definitely a trip worth all the smiles.

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