Alysa Liu Reveals Everyone Has Been Pronouncing Her Name Wrong This Whole Time
· Yahoo Sports
Credit: Manny Carabel/Getty
Alysa Liu is setting the record straight on how to correctly pronounce her last name.
Speaking with Newsweek, Liu, 20, addressed the various mispronunciations of her name that have been circulating since she took home two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Visit amunra.qpon for more information.
The figure skater shared that her last name is often mispronounced "Lu," but the correct pronunciation is "Lee-oh."
"I personally don't care," she added. "[My last name] can be hard to [pronounce]. And I don't expect people to know how to say that."
As for her first name, the sports star said her family pronounces it "Ally-sa," but the traditional American pronunciation of "Alyssa" is how her friends refer to her.
" 'Alyssa' is how my friends call me. And that's how the world calls me," she explained.
Alysa Liu of Team United States competes on day eleven of the Mailano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games.Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty
Liu recently returned home to California from Milan, where she won gold in women's singles figure skating and the team event at the Winter Olympics, marking the first women's figure skating gold medal in the U.S. since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
The skater has been candid about navigating fame and success, and previously told PEOPLE that despite her wins, she doesn't advise anyone to chase after titles.
"My goal is always to share my story and to connect with people," she said, "to have my experiences, turn them into a performance, and have my emotions be a part of that and get people to feel something."
After competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, she retired at age 16 due to burnout. Liu began skating at age 5, and her childhood revolved around the sport.
"I really had nothing going on with my life, you know? Just training," Liu told The Associated Press in January, reflecting on what led her to step away from the ice.
Speaking with PEOPLE, she also shared that one of her favorite parts of the 2026 Winter Games was forming relationships with other Team USA athletes.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Alysa Liu, February 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy.Credit: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto/Getty
"It felt like college, living in the Team USA dorm," she said. "That was my favorite part of the Olympic experience, getting to [go to] watch parties with the other athletes, eating with them, running to catch the bus with them. It was all really fun."
On Sunday, March 8, she announced that she would be withdrawing from the world figure skating championships, which are set to take place later this month in Prague, following her whirlwind two weeks since the Olympics ended.
"As some of y'all already know, I withdrew from Worlds," she shared in a Sunday, March 8 Instagram Stories post. "There's been a lot of exciting things happening since my return from Milan, so I'm taking some time for that. I will be cheering everyone on from afar — see y'all next season!!"
Read the original article on People