It’s the first gold medal for an American woman since 2002, when Sarah Hughes stood atop the podium in Salt Lake City.
MILAN, Italy — Team USA’s 24-year gold medal drought in women’s figure skating is over, thanks to Alysa Liu and her phenomenal performance Thursday in the women’s free skate.
Liu was in third place coming into the free skate, in the best position of the three Americans to earn a medal. She performed a near-flawless routine 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.
Liu’s performance won the U.S. its first women’s individual figure skating gold medal in 24 years.
She wasn’t even born yet the last time that happened – when Sarah Hughes stood atop the podium in Salt Lake City.
Since that time, only American Sasha Cohen had even reached the podium in the event, taking silver in 2006.
Liu performed to “MacArthur Park Suite” by Donna Summer.
She was seeking to challenge Japanese rivals Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto in the free skate. The Japanese figure skating pair had the top two scores in the short program. Liu’s win comes after she returned to competing after a two-year retirement and a break from burnout, winning the first world title by an American last year since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
Before her skating performance on Thursday, Liu had made it clear that whether she won or not, she was proud of her Olympic program.
“I’m OK if I do a fail program. I’m totally OK if I do a great program,” she said. “No matter what the outcome is, it’s still my story.”
By the end of the night, her story had added even more gold.
Amber Glenn, who was the only American woman to land a triple axel in the short program had a lot of ground to make up in Thursday’s event.
Glenn finished in fifth behind Mone Chiba of Japan, a stunning rebound from her disastrous short program Tuesday. Her season-best free skate gave a score of 214.91 points, and just about landed her on the podium as well. She performed “I Will Find You” by The Return.
On Tuesday’s short program, Glenn missed a crucial triple loop that left the three-time reigning U.S. champion in 13th place.
Isabeau Levito made enough small mistakes to fall to eighth place in the short program. On Thursday, she did a performance to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone and scored 131.96 points to land her in 12th place.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.