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American figure skater Alyssa Liu is the United States’ last hope of winning a gold medal in an individual figure skating event at the Milan Cortina Olympic Games.
Liu has become a US fan favorite this year, playing a key role in helping her country win gold in the team event after her dramatic comeback story. He has just returned to the world stage after a brief retirement following his performance at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
But there was a moment in its history when not everything was sporting joy. There was a time when he had to face the fear of geopolitical espionage.
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Alysa Liu of Team USA competes during the women’s single skating short program on day eleven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 17, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Just before her appearance at the Beijing 2022 games, she and her father were the target of an espionage operation by the Chinese government.
His father, Arthur, fled China as a refugee decades earlier. But his past haunted him, like his past participation in 1989 Protests in Tiananmen Square made him and his daughter a target for spies in 2022.
Liu called the experience “a little strange and exciting.”
“You know what I mean? It’s so… unbelievable. You know what I mean, that’s crazy,” Liu previously told Pak Gazette Digital in a roundtable interview 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 Stadium at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on February 17, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Tim Clayton/Getty Images)
“Imagine finding out that at such a young age. I mean, in a weird way, I was like, ‘Am I like on some prank show?’ Is this world real? I must be some movie character. But, I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, because of everything my father did in his activist days.”
One of the 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 try 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… somehow threaten us into not saying anything, to cause them trouble and say anything political or related to human rights violations in China… I was worried about her safety. The U.S. government did a good job protecting her.”
The US Department of Justice and the FBI came to Liu’s aid.
He first spoke to the FBI agent who would protect his family for a long time at a local Japanese restaurant.
“I went to dinner with her a couple of times and I mostly talk, because I’m also very interested in what she does, like the guys, that’s great for me, I don’t know, just meeting with an FBI agent is a crazy job,” he said.
“You know, and I mean, not many people can do that. So, you know, I have a lot of questions and I’ve met with a psychologist there, not for me because I was very curious about what she does.”
Liu added that the FBI made her feel “safe” throughout the entire situation.
The spy operation did not scare Liu from competing in Beijing. But she had reinforced security guarantees from the US State Department and the USOPC, as at least two people escorted her at all times when she was there.
He does not rule out seeing his life and experience in an international espionage incident adapted to film.
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Alysa Liu poses for a photo after the Milan 2026 Olympic Games figure skating team announcement at the Enterprise Center on January 11, 2026. (Jeff Curry/Image Images)
Still, he has some preferences if his story makes it to the big screen.
“They have to make me look like some cool hero or something. And I can’t just be the girl who got spied on and didn’t do anything about it,” she said. “But honestly, I would focus on my father’s story, because his story is great and also like everything that happened because of what he did, so I feel like we have to start with the roots.”
Liu will now do everything she can to ensure her country does not leave Milan Cortina without an individual gold medal in figure skating, having put herself in contention for gold after Tuesday night’s short program.
Liu landed a triple Lutz-triple loop, the most difficult combination any woman has attempted. He will have to usurp his Japanese rivals Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto.
