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Alysa Liu Accepted Her ESPY for Best Breakthrough Athlete in a Louis Vuitton Gown That Showed Off Her Lower-Back Tattoo

Updated 5 days ago, August 13, 2026

Six months ago she was standing on the Olympic podium in Milan-Cortina. On Wednesday night she was collecting a trophy for the run that put her there.

Alysa Liu, the 20-year-old Oakland native and UCLA student, won gold in women’s singles at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, the first American woman to do it since Sarah Hughes in 2002, and helped Team USA to team gold on the way.

Woman in a backless brown gown with hands on hips posing over her shoulder, showing a bat lower-back tattoo and a chain necklace ending in a cross, in front of an ESPYS backdrop. — Hands on hips and glancing back over her shoulder, Alysa Liu gives a rear-facing pose at the 2026 ESPY Awards, highlighting the dramatic backless cut of her Louis Vuitton gown and a bat tattoo just above the waistline. Photo by Jordan Tovin / Reuters.

She sat third after the short program, then dropped a near-flawless free skate to Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park Suite,” landing seven triples with zero negative GOEs for a 150.20 free and 226.79 total. She beat Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto by under two points. It was the payoff to a comeback most skaters don’t attempt: she’s a two-time U.S. National Champion (2019 and 2020) and was the youngest woman ever to win the title, at 13, before placing sixth at Beijing 2022, retiring for more than two years, and returning to win the 2025 World Championships.

Alysa Liu in a strapless dark red ballgown with tiered ruffles on the Met Gala steps, looking over her shoulder toward the camera. — At the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s steps in New York, figure skater Alysa Liu attended the 2026 Met Gala on May 4, 2026, dressed in a deep-crimson strapless ballgown with a cascading ruffled hem. Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images.

That arc earned her Best Breakthrough Athlete at the 2026 ESPYs, held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center and broadcast on ABC and ESPN. Hosted by Marcello Hernández, the show gave her the loudest standing ovation of the night; Kevin Hart presented, and she beat out Drake Maye, Fernando Mendoza, and Macklin Celebrini.

Back view of a woman in a backless brown halter gown with a cross chain necklace and a bat tattoo at the lower back, standing in front of an ESPYS step-and-repeat. — The open back of Alysa Liu’s brown halter gown puts her lower-back bat tattoo and a dangling cross necklace on full display at the 2026 ESPY Awards in New York City on July 15. Photo by Jordan Tovin / Reuters.

“I’ve been in my sport since I was 5 years old and I had some really rough times in it, I took two years off,” she said onstage. “So, for me, this really feels like I broke through in my own way, for myself, and for my sport.”

Woman in a brown deep-V halter maxi gown and black cross necklace smiling on a red carpet in front of an ESPYS and Capital One step-and-repeat backdrop. — Alysa Liu smiles for a full-length shot on the red carpet at the 2026 ESPYs at Lincoln Center, wearing a deep-plunge brown halter gown and a black cross necklace. Photo by Jordan Tovin / Reuters.

Liu is now a Louis Vuitton house ambassador, an appointment the brand announced the day of the Met Gala in May, where she wore a custom scarlet Nicolas Ghesquière gown. She made her Paris Fashion Week debut front row at the LV Fall 2026 show in March.

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