Olympic Star Alysa Liu Is Back in the Bay, and Oakland Is Ready to Celebrate

With Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu headed back to Oakland after a historic run in Milan, the Town is ready to celebrate.

The city of Oakland announced Tuesday that it will host a community-wide celebration, joining a flood of Bay Area locals celebrating the 20-year-old figure skater’s childhood roots.

Liu, who grew up in Richmond and has trained in Oakland throughout her career, won the U.S.’s first gold medal in women’s singles skating in more than 20 years and helped the U.S. team to another with her short program performance last week. With the wins, she’s also secured a third title: “Oakland’s hometown hero,” the city crowned her in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“Alysa represents the heart, grit, resilience, and joy of Oakland,” the post said, which promised that the city is coordinating with Liu’s team to set a date for the celebration. “Her achievement has filled our city with pride.”

Last week, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee told KQED that Liu is an inspiration to the city’s youth.

“We’re so excited about this historic win and excited for her,” Lee said. “She is a wonderful young lady who has a very promising future. And once again, she is an example of Oakland and our town and what we do.”

While details on the upcoming celebration are sparse, praise for the young star — whose Gen Z style, untraditional music choices and unfiltered post-skate celebration have captured attention across the country — is not.

Oakland-based Fentons Creamery said Liu will enjoy ice cream for life following her free skate performance to Donna Summer’s disco cover of “MacArthur Park Suite” last week, and offered to host a homecoming party when she returned to the Bay.

“The sundaes are on standby,” the shop, which has operated in Oakland for more than 130 years, wrote on Instagram. “Oakland shows up for its own.”

Liu was 5 when she was first introduced to skating at the Oakland Ice Center, and continued to train at the club throughout much of her professional career, until announcing her retirement in 2022.

After she placed sixth at the Beijing Olympic Games that year, she said in a now-deleted social media post that she was “finally done with her goals” in the sport after more than a decade full of “a lot of good and a lot of bad.”

She told the Oaklandside that she was burned out and no longer found joy in skating when she quit. But in 2024, she told the publication, she was reminded of her love for the sport after a skiing trip and decided to return to the ice — and the Oakland Ice Center, where she’s again trained over the last two years.

While she was in Milan, the rink hosted viewing parties for her events and praised her winnings on social media.

“We are so proud to share the ice with you,” a social media post said last week from the Oakland Ice Center and Oakland Skates Ice Hockey, a semi-pro team that uses the rink.

BART also gave her a shoutout after that performance, congratulating the “BART rider and Oakland legend.” The post clips a news article about Liu, which said she often took the public transit system to get from the East Bay to San Francisco for training.

Commenters on Bluesky were quick to point out her connection, too, to San Francisco’s public transit system: When Muni’s L-Taraval train relaunched after five years of renovations in September 2024, Liu recorded a bilingual message in Mandarin and English for returning riders.

“From welcoming riders on the L-Taraval to standing atop the Olympic podium … Huge congratulations to the Bay Area’s own Alysa Liu,” the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency wrote, joining the bandwagon.

Oakland-raised football star Marshawn Lynch also sent encouragement to Liu.

“Go out there and win some gold, bring that sh-t back to the Town man,” Lynch, who played multiple seasons with the Oakland Raiders, said in a video posted to social media. “Town business, show them what you’re talking about.”

Last Thursday, after her free skate performance launched her to the top of the singles competition leaderboard, Liu returned the love.

“Oakland shoutout,” she said as she skated toward the cameras, beaming.