Alysa Liu delivered the U.S. its first women’s figure skating Olympic gold medal in 24 years, performing a near-flawless free skate Thursday night in a glittering golden dress to upstage Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai at the Milan Cortina Games.
The 20-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, who had walked away from the sport after the Beijing Games four years ago only to launch a remarkable comeback, finished with a career-best 226.79 points. Nakai and Sakamoto, skating right behind her, each made a mistake on a combination sequence, and that made the difference in the medals.
Sakamoto had 224.90 points to earn a silver to go with her bronze from Beijing. Nakai finished third with 219.16 points.
The moment Nakai’s score was read after the final program of the night, teammate Amber Glenn jumped onto the kiss-and-cry stand and raised Liu’s hand in triumph. Liu sheepishly turned and applauded the 17-year-old Nakai, who raced over and hugged her.
It’s the first gold medal for an American woman since 2002, when Sarah Hughes stood atop the podium in Salt Lake City.
Glenn finished in fifth behind Mone Chiba of Japan, a stunning rebound from a disastrous short program Tuesday night. Her season-best free skate gave a score of 214.91 points, and just about landed her on the podium as well.
Glenn pumped her first and fought back tears when her score was read, then she took a seat in the new “leader’s chair.”
She wound up sitting there for quite a while.
Through an ice resurfacing. And through eight programs by other skaters, including American teammate Isabeau Levito, whose fall on her opening triple flip in an otherwise elegant performance kept her from taking over the top spot herself.
Adeliia Petrosian, the 18-year-old Russian competing as a neutral athlete at the Milan Cortina Games, tried the only quadruple jump during the women’s competition but fell on the quad toe loop. She was clean the rest of the way, but the points Petrosian lost on that fall ended up leaving her less than a half-point behind the leader.
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It was Chiba — the ninth skater to follow Glenn — that finally took over first place.
That didn’t last long with Liu next on the ice.
The reigning world champion — that title was the first for an American in a mere 19 years, by the way — was perfect from her opening triple flip to her closing combination sequence. As the last bits of Donna Summer's rendition of “MacArthur Park” closed, and the roar of the fans filled the void, the carefree Liu gave a casual flip of her ponytail as if to say, “So what?”
Her coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, were a little more rambunctious. They punched the air, then gave each other a big hug, before heading over to greet their star pupil when she stepped off the ice to await her score.
The score that ultimately would give her an Olympic title and end a long drought for the American women.
