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Alysa Liu’s Unexpected Piercing Reveal Turns Heads After Olympic Gold

USA figure skating star and Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu made an honest admission about one piercing she has.
Grant Young|
Alysa Liu of the United States
Alysa Liu of the United States | James Lang-Imagn Images

After a drought of more than two decades, the United States now has a Winter Olympic champion women's figure skater once again in Alysa Liu.

Liu took home a gold medal in the women's figure skating freestyle program on February 19. She followed up a great short program performance on February 17 (which put her in third place) with the long program on February 19, where she thrived.

Alysa Liu of the United States
Alysa Liu of the United States | James Lang-Imagn Images

RELATED: Alysa Liu's Dad Arthur Steals Show With Emotional Reaction to Olympic Gold Medal

Liu earned a season-best 150.20 in Thursday's long program performance, giving her a total of 226.79 points.

While she had to watch and see whether the two skaters with better short program scores could beat this score after she finished, neither could come close to matching this score, thus making Liu the first USA women's figure skater to win a medal since 2006 and the first to win gold since 2004.

RELATED: Alysa Liu’s Heartwarming Photo With Competitors After Gold Medal You Didn’t See

Alysa Liu Sparks Buzz With Unique Piercing Admission

Liu's eccentric personality has made her beloved by American fans. This personality is shown through her appearance, including a unique piercing that Liu has inside her mouth, which she calls her "smiley".

The Olympic gold medalist spoke with NBC New York and got candid about this piercing, saying, "I pierced it, I think, a little over two years ago now. It's pierced at the frenulum, so it goes through there. And you can see it when I smile!" per an Instagram post from @nbcnewyork.

When asked whether this was painful, she said, "No! Actually, okay, it was zero out of 10 pain. You can't feel it because the skin there is so thin, so you don't feel it at all.

"Also, I did it myself," Liu added. When this baffled her interviewer, she added, "I had my sister hold up my lip, and I was looking in the mirror, and I had my piercing needle, and then, yeah, I just put it through."

Alysa Liu of the United States
Alysa Liu of the United States | James Lang-Imagn Images

The fact that Liu did this piercing to herself was unexpected, to say the least. As was the fact that it didn't hurt.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the Athlete Lifestyle, Women’s Basketball, the New York Mets, the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago Cubs, and boxing for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years.

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