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American figure skater Alyssa Liu is America’s last hope to win a gold medal in an individual figure skating event at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Liu has become a favorite among American fans this year, playing a key role in helping her country win gold in the team event after her dramatic comeback. She has just returned to the world stage after a brief retirement following her performance at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
But there was a moment in its history that wasn’t all feel-good sporting joy. There was a time when she had to face the fear of geopolitical espionage.
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Alysa Liu of Team USA competes in the women’s individual skating short program on day eleven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Milan Ice Rink on February 17, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Just before her participation in the 2022 Beijing Games, she and her father were the targets of a spy operation carried out by the Chinese government.
His father, Arthur, had fled China as a refugee several decades earlier. But his past followed him, like his involvement in the 1989 conflict. Tiananmen Square protests made him and his daughter the target of spies in 2022.
Liu called the experience “a little weird and exciting.”
“You know what I mean? It’s so… incredible. You know what I mean, it’s crazy,” Liu previously told PK Press Club Digital during a panel discussion at the USOPC Media Summit in October.
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Alysa Liu of the United States performs her routine during the figure skating short program, women’s single skating at the Milan Ice Skating Arena at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on February 17, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Tim Clayton/Getty Images)
“Imagine finding that at such a young age, I mean, in a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like on a prank show?’ Like, is this world real, like I’m supposed to be a character in a movie. But I mean, it felt like it made sense to me, you know, based on everything my dad did back when he was an activist.”
One of five men charged Wednesday with spying on Chinese dissidents living in the United States, Matthew Ziburis, allegedly contacted Arthur in November 2021, posing as a USOPC official and asking for his and Liu’s passport numbers, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Ziburis allegedly traveled to California’s Bay Area, where the Liu family lived, to surveil them and attempt to obtain private information from the family that he could then provide to the Chinese government.
Her father told the Associated Press at the time: “They’re probably just trying to intimidate us, to…threaten us in some way to not say anything, to get them in trouble and to say anything political or related to human rights abuses in China…I had concerns about her safety. The U.S. government has done a good job protecting her.”
The US Department of Justice and the FBI came to Liu’s aid.
She first spoke with the FBI agent who would protect her family at length at a local Japanese restaurant.
“I’ve gone to dinner with her a few times, I talk to her mostly, because I’m also really interested in what she does, like guys, it’s so cool to me, I don’t know, just like meeting an FBI agent, it’s crazy work,” she said.
“You know, and I mean, not many people can do that. So, you know, I have so many questions and like I met her, like a psychologist there, not for me because I was so curious about what she does.”
Liu added that the FBI made him feel “safe” throughout the situation.
The spy operation did not deter Liu from competing in Beijing. But she had enhanced security guarantees from the U.S. State Department and USOPC, since at least two people escorted her at all times while she was there.
She has not ruled out seeing her life and experience in an international espionage incident made into a film.
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Alysa Liu poses for a photo after the announcement of the Milan 2026 Olympic figure skating team at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Imagn Images)
She nevertheless has certain preferences if her story is broadcast on the big screen.
“They have to make me look like a super cool hero or something. And I can’t be the kid who was spied on and didn’t do anything,” she said. “But honestly, I just want the focus to be on my dad’s story, because his story is so cool and also everything that happened only happened because of what he did, so I feel like we have to start at the roots.”
Liu will now do what she can to ensure her country does not leave Milan Cortina without an individual figure skating gold medal, as she puts herself in contention for gold after Tuesday night’s short program.
Liu completed a triple Lutz-triple loop, the most difficult combination a woman has attempted. She will have to usurp her Japanese rivals Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto.
