Alysa Liu is currently trending due to her notable performance in the figure skating team event at the Winter Olympics 2026. Recent reports indicate that Liu, alongside her teammates, helped the U.S. take an early lead in the competition, which has drawn significant attention from sports enthusiasts and casual viewers alike.
The increase in search interest, exceeding 20,000 searches, can primarily be attributed to Liu’s involvement in the Olympics, an event that garners widespread media coverage and public interest. Articles from major outlets like Yahoo Sports and The Washington Post highlight her contributions to the team’s success, further increasing her visibility and prompting fans to seek more information about her and her performance.
Additionally, the context of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which is a globally prominent event, likely contributes to the surge in searches. Media reports focusing on the U.S. team’s overall achievements, including Liu’s role, have made her a focal point of interest as viewers follow the progress of the competitions.
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B
if i see anyone with a smiley and alysa’s hair i’m gonna assume they’re alt. maybe she isn’t to people in the alternative space but to the general public she is very much “alternative”
W
While things like her halo dyed hair and smiley piercing may be mainstream in a lot of circles now they are very much not in elite figure skating circles. For a figure skater she is quite ‘alt girl’. I do get where you’re coming from because in a way it’s how I used to feel when people called things ‘punk’ or ‘grunge’ that didn’t fit my personal idea of what that meant. But now that I’m older my feelings are that being ‘alternative’ doesn’t have to mean you fit into a specific subculture or match a specific set of characteristics. There are varying degrees of being ‘alt’, for some people it’s their whole lifestyle, but at the end of the day IMO it just means you’re a more nonconforming person who doesn’t just go along with whats ‘normal’ and ‘easy’ and that you move to the beat of your own drum.
S
i agree. i can be a stickler for details/accuracy and so its hard for me to see so many people not give it second thought because it doesnt rly matter to them LOL
W
yeah and i can totally understand as i used to feel like that too. my mindset has shifted over the years though and the way i look at it now is like: being alternative means you don’t conform to the ‘norms’ around you, so if we expect someone to conform to certain characteristics in order to be considered alternative it’s kinda the antithesis of what it means in the first place. to me, when you zoom out on any subculture you can see that definitions are a good guide for what *can* be part of it but the actual culture is composed of so much more variety than a definition can describe. i think it’s cool as hell that people can find a way to express their nonconformity and uniqueness in every possible corner of the world including a sport like this. not trying to lecture btw, just kinda wanted to express another POV. i think it’s good to try to maintain the core essence of subcultures but we have to be careful not to get too picky with definitions or we lose sight of what it’s all about.
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no thats ok it didnt come off as lecturing 🙂 i never thought about alternative as being a fluid thing that depends on environment actually. you make a good point
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Wundernerds comment is the most important comment on this post. Alternative in its purest definition is about being true to yourself whatever that means, so if you start placing narrow definitions on what it means to be alternative, you turn it into just another mainstream exclusionary sub-culture. Anyone who is true to themselves is an alternative as the world defines it. The world does not define it as the sub-culture you are describing And don’t forget relativity. Alysa spends most of her time training. Not watching social media feeds or even reading the news I’d imagine. No one tells Alysa what to post or what to say anymore, she just has more pressing things going on in her life at the moment than political activism, even though she still speaks out about many current horrors. But that doesn’t make her uniquely Alysa posts somehow too vanilla or not alternative, because as we’ve covered, defining alternative immediately kills it
I
Sir, this is a Wendy’s (I’m sorry, I understand that the alternative subculture may be a very important topic to you specifically, but you just wrote a screed for something people do not spend more than half a second thinking about when they talk about Alysa or call her “alt”)
S
LOL yeah i figured, but i would’ve felt weird posting this in an alternative subreddit because they on the other hand probably wouldnt know anything abt figure skating. i feel like the child of divorced parents but i was hoping someone would get me on this!!! i rlly didnt mean any disrespect
I
think about it this way: I’m seeing a lot of content online now from creators who don’t know anything about the sport, so they refer to all figure skating as “ice dance.” Imagine if on the alt subreddit, someone came in and said, “All these tiktoks are celebrating Alysa being an alt ice dancer, but she’s not an ice dancer, she’s a figure skater” and then went on to describe in detail the differences between singles figure skating and ice dance. I can’t, in all honesty, imagine a subreddit of people who are not figure skating fans reacting to that any differently than “who cares”
S
this puts it into better perspective for me actually thanks. having an r/altfigureskating would solve this 🙁
I
‘Tis the woe of having two interests that barely intersect. Like looking for a rarepair fic on AO3 and finding out that it’s you and 2 other freaks huddling around 1 writer’s work, hoping your kudos will keep them writing like twigs being fed to a dying campfire.
P
I think that’s the best way people know how to characterize her. She’s “alt” for the sport, not “alt” as defined by ”alt” subcultures. But she’s definitely not mainstream. In the most loving way- she has a weird ass piercing she did herself, weird ass hair, and is singing to Laufey. That’s alt enough for the mainstream.
S
i agree
S
…we’re gatekeeping alternative now?
P
From just the headline, I thought they meant an Olympic alternate. ….but this is way odder.
S
yeah i had a feeling ppl would think that
P
I’ve been gatekeeping for 40 years. She’s alt. I’ve also been gatekeeping the term gatekeeping before it existed. And a band so cool they don’t exist. Although that is a possibility now.
2
But because you just mentioned the band, other people know about it now. So you are no longer alternative until you find another band one no one’s heard of.
S
DYING
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2 alternative 4 u 🙄
E
yes, back when i was scene, oh the gatekeeping culture was hella strong. people would call you fake if you didnt wear x brand this and x brand that. anything alt can be quite gatekeepy.. idk how its like nowdays tho, i havent been scene (or alt) in a decade… (for me it was very much a phase, mixed with me being to lazy to keep up with scene/alt fashion. i do still like it tho)
I
I swear, the term ‘alt’ only came into existence because people were gatekeeping other subcultures (goth, punk, ect.) Come to think of it, I’m sure ‘scene’ only came around because we all started gatekeeping emo…
S
sorry, can you explain how i’m gatekeeping? i tried to make it very obvious\* that i didn’t mean any disrespect, i quite literally do not see what about her is alternative: i’m genuinely asking someone to point it out. like srsly imo, being alternative is not just piercing + dyed hair. am i wrong? i feel like it requires at least some integrity, and she hasn’t really been marketed with much integrity.. EDIT: like guys i cannot emphasize this enough this is not a hatepost. if ur gonna downvote PLZ at least answer my question because i feel like an alien omfg
L
Unfortunately I think people are downvoting because this post was a little out of nowhere, a little nonsensical, and not particularly relevant to the current big sporting event going on… ETA: Sorry OP, I can see the correct labelling of “alt” is important to you, but this sub is people more focused on the sport, the Olympics, etc and so this post will come off as a bit of a head-scratcher.
S
i figured but at least i learned something 🙂
_
also important note: most people mean that she is alternative by FIGURE SKATING standards. to this day, skaters like Isabeau Levito, whose persona is very “ice princess”, are favored by fans & judges. so Alyssa having a piercings, a laid back attitude, and a different style compared to most skaters makes her alternative in this space, not necessarily every space
2
Your username just… very much adds to your complaint. This cannot be real, yikes.
W
i just want to add that alysa, while not posting as often as she does about figure skating, does make her political stance extremely clear. she’s publicly condemned ice and supports palestine! idk anything about her style though so i can’t comment on that.
S
okay that makes a lot more sense, thank you so much. could you send me the article/story where she said this? if you cant thats ok. i was concerned mostly about people diminishing being alternative to just clothing/commercializing it into something “cool”/”marketable” to gain traction for the olympics, and i was assuming because i couldn’t find anything after searching for a bit that she didnt really have any explicit political stance
W
ok so most of her political stuff is either on her stories or in her reposts, which probably has something to do with sponsorship and stuff like that. if you scroll through her tiktok reposts you’ll see some stuff reposted abt ice and palestine. here’s a comment someone made regarding it tho. (i can’t find the original posts, sorry) https://preview.redd.it/bh8m9nd3hshg1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2036b620d16f5887be388ebad44173b537c84661
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There was a gal spamming like every USFS post about how Alysa and Amber shouldn’t be on the team since they’re pro Palestine (she tried to say pro Hamas) and it’s like ma’am, you’re pro genocide, so maybe you should pipe down over there.
M
I think it’s in context of a sport that has always controlled people’s appearances and expected women to look and act a certain way (read: graceful, elegant, etc.) For instance, I don’t recall too many other famous/big name female skaters with a mouth piercing and raccoon hair. And if you regularly check her instagram, she is one of the few American skaters posting against ICE and has spoken out a little in an interview as well.
M
I’m not sure what fighting with headlines of olympic puff pieces gets you here. Alysa has always talked about just doing what she likes, not pushing any label. You can can do that too. The labels and policing who gets to claim them will become less important and interesting to you as you grow up.
S
no yeah, this was just a question to ask a question. & that’s what i’m saying. i don’t understand why doing what you feel like doing immediately has to have a hard label put on it… being alternative is a label that i don’t think does her justice & has made people (thankfully not many, but still some) more critical of her “message” instead of her skating and it’s criticism i feel she doesn’t deserve
M
Do you spend a lot of time online on subs, forums, etc dedicated to alt fashion, music, etc? Communities like that there can sometimes have a lot of “one upping” of “what is ____ enough”. I think you might have a skewed of what’s mainstream, especially in conservative sports like figure skating. She’s outside the norm in the sport and that’s what the mainstream pubs are picking up on, whether it counts for you and your communities or not.
S
yeah i do 🙂 i hope this post didn’t read too much like “she isn’t alt enough”, i didn’t want to bash her. but you’re right i also might be a bit too optimistic about how progressive figure skating (at least in the usa) has become considering people were pretty accepting of amber glenn considering she was the first woman in skating to ever come out + considering same-sex pairs in skating are getting a lot more traction/acceptance (besides from the isu but still!), so i figured her whole image wasn’t really anything crazy to the community, but judging by the responses i might be wrong lol.
L
Oh the figure skating you see coming through the social media feeds will tend to portray the sport as much more progressive than it really is amongst the officials, the coaches, the parents (usually wealthy and often white in America). A lot of the more vocal fans making edits and stuff seem to tend towards being more left-of-center politically speaking, although that might just be the algorithm that’s been curated based on my interactions. Basically it’s more likely than not that the people in positions of power will lean conservative while the athletes themselves span a spectrum from actual MAGA people to liberal to left-wing (although I’m honestly how left it really goes).
2
It’s not just the white parents. The most homophobic, conservative parents by far at the Bay Area rinks are often the Asian immigrant parents. The parents from Hong Kong and Korea at my rink ran an anti-gay marriage yard sign campaign out of the rinks parking lot during the run up to Prop 8. But white people in the Bay Area (sans Mormons) are known for being very hippy and liberal. Though there definitely are conservative white people rampant in the sport. Colorado Springs skating (and many in USFS HQ) was centered around the evangelical community there for a long time – and there were evangelical pockets in Chicago skating as well. I think the difference is this: other than the evangelical Christians, a lot of the conservative white people in skating are more “traditional republican” types. They’re very economically conservative and perhaps conservative on some social issues, but many are open to LGB individuals to some extent. At least that’s true for the conservative white skating parents and skaters in the Chicago/Michigan communities I knew.
L
Oh damn I forgot about the Asian diaspora MAGA people. Truly the group I least understand.
4
It reads like (no offense) you need to touch grass. Maybe like this is a special interest or hyperfixation but it’s just way too much info on a subculture that isnt particularly meaningful (arguing about labels being “watered down” or music being “too main stream” instead of cultural impact or historical significance) Ultimatrly it comes off making you look super unlikable which you seem to care about. So either reflect on why just saying “this isnt a hate post” is not sufficient to combat your writing style/thoughts or dont self reflect and dont care about downvotes is my suggestion
S
yeah no im not that obsessed with downvotes its just that if SEVERAL people are downvoting me and not responding to a question it kind of makes me wonder what i’ve said that was wrong, but no one’s really pointed it out yet besides you (somewhat). it’s not a hyperfixation! i just got into an argument with someone over it & was wondering what other people thought 🙂 i’m just not sure why people are downvoting besides disagreement
B
you’re judging someone based on their public persona. She clearly likes her hair, she likes whatever music she likes. You don’t KNOW what views or values she holds or what she does in her personal time outside of what the media machine has shared with you. . And you’re annoyed that she’s not sharing even more of her private life on socials so that you can judge whether or not she fits your idea of “alternative”? bro go touch grass
2
This is the most ✨requiring of touching grass✨ post I’ve ever seen, and that’s really saying something. Holy moly…
A
 (joking)
S
thanks analfartbleacher
P
I don’t think it’s very anti-establishment to look at this sport in which female athletes are under immense pressure to perform a particular kind of ice princess eurocentric hyperfemininity and then go, “Yeah, I’m going to nitpick the appearance and media persona of this young biracial woman who was famously micromanaged and traumatized into burning out at the age of 16.” Not trying to be mean, just offering some food for thought.
L
She shares a lot of political things on her Instagram story. A day or two ago she shared something about being against AI and ICE. She also spoke in an interview or fluff piece (around the time of nationals) about not being blindly pro government and credited her dad, because he used to do government protests in China or something.
2
Alysa Liu liking whatever she likes feels “performative” to you…? This is the weirdest, most navel-gazing post ever to land on the subreddit. Also maybe don’t try to put people into a box. Gen Z in particular is doing a great job refraining from labeling themselves. You’d be happier if you stopped trying to ensure someone else’s supposed label “fits them”, especially when that person has no control over what the public or media say about her.
P
A lot of subcultures have sort of a purity mentality around them. Alt is particularly weird because it’s about now fitting the mold, but this post is all about how she doesn’t fit their idea of a different mold, which is pretty ironic lol. Saying “idc” but writing several paragraphs on the subject doesn’t suggest a lack of care.
R
I want to say something about it but I’m so old that I don’t know what it means to be “Alternative”
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