Sophie Cunningham Shares Honest Take On Alysa Liu After Olympic Gold Medal

Sophie Cunningham sent a clear message to Team USA figure skating star Alysa Liu.

Alysa Liu of the United States | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

The sports world is still buzzing over what USA women's figure skater Alysa Liu accomplished on February 19.

Heading into the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, the USA had not placed a women's figure skater on the medal podium since 2006. And Team USA's squad hadn't had a women's gold medalist since 2002.

There was a lot of pressure on Liu (along with Amber Glenn, her Team USA teammate) to earn a spot on the podium. And not only did the 20-year-old phenom get a medal, but her spectacular performance during the free skate long program final on February 19 won her a gold medal.

ALYSA LIU YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLE. 😍 #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/3btj1WEQCp

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 19, 2026

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Liu earned a season-best 150.20 in the long program performance, giving her a total of 226.79 points. Since she finished in third place after the short program (the first of two sets in the free skate event), she had to sit and watch whether the two women who produced better short program scores would be able to beat her combined score right afterwards.

Neither of the two came relatively close, which meant that Liu won her second gold medal of these Winter Olympics (she was part of the Team USA squad that won gold in the team event).

Liu was already a household name in the figure skating world. But her performance, ensuing gold medal, and her eccentric, quirky, unapologetic personality have since turned her into a global superstar.

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

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Sophie Cunningham Shows Alysa Liu Love After Winning Olympic Gold

Speaking of eccentric, unapologetic personalities, Sophie Cunningham certainly has one of those, and she has become one of the most polarizing (and popular) figures in women's basketball because of it.

Cunningham made her admiration for Liu very clear in a recent social media post. In the wake of Liu securing her free skate gold medal, she made an Instagram post that showed her flaunting both medals to the camera with the caption, "These are for yall".

The post is nearing 2 million likes and has thousands of comments from major names in the sports world.

Cunningham was among them, as she simply wrote, "QUEEEEEN✨".

Sophie Cunningham's comment on Alysa Liu's Instagram post. | Instagram/@alysaxliu

Liu clearly has a fan in Cunningham. It will be awesome to see how Liu can continue to grow and capitalize upon her own stardom, and perhaps she'll be back going for more gold in 2030.