The knowledge that Alysa Liu’s name was pronounced incorrectly during her big wins at the 2026 Winter Olympics is kind of Lutz.
The 20-year-old U.S. figure skater who hails from the San Francisco Bay Area won two gold medals at the Milan Cortina Games last month. She won one gold medal in the figure skating team event and another for the women’s individual singles event — and both times she apparently had to settle for hearing her name being announced like a barista would at a coffee shop.
On Sunday, Newsweek posted on Instagram a snippet of an interview they conducted with Liu, in which she revealed the proper way to say her name, and it seems we were all way, way off.
Most assumed her first name was pronounced like Alyssa, or “uh-LISS-uh” — but Liu told the outlet that’s not quite right. She said that her family pronounces it “eh-LEEZ-uh,” like the name Elise with an “A” at the end. But it seems the athlete is kind of used to people butchering her first name.
“‘Alyssa’ is how my friends call me. And that’s how the world calls me,” she explained.
