American figure skater Alysa Liu may stand on the brink of Olympics history but her remarkable career took a sinister turn four years ago when her and her father were targeted by Chinese spies.
The 20-year-old, who has been dubbed the ‘Blade Angel’, has become a fan favorite among American viewers at this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.
She can end a 24-year drought for American women in Olympic figure skating on Thursday night but must chase down Japanese rivals Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto in the free skate to win gold.
Liu’s remarkable career saw her briefly retire in 2022 but she returned in early 2024 and last year she became the first American to win a world title since 2006.
She has already helped the U.S. win gold in the team event at this year’s Games but now Liu can become the first American woman to stand atop an Olympic podium since Sarah Hughes at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
However, Liu’s life took a dark turn when she and her father Arthur were targeted in a spying operation before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
American figure skater Alysa Liu and her father were once targeted by Chinese spies
Arthur, left, China for America in his 20s as a political refugee after protesting the Communist government following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
Arthur left China in his 20s as a political refugee after protesting the Communist government following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and put himself through law school.
He told The Associated Press in March 2022 he had been contacted by the FBI in October 2021, and warned about the scheme just as his then 16-year-old daughter was preparing for the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Arthur said a man then called him in November 2021, months before the Olympics, claiming to be an official with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and asked for his and his daughters’ passport numbers.
Arthur refused to provide them and said he would call his contact at Team USA the next day.
Arthur said he did not remember being approached in person by Matthew Ziburis, who was arrested in March 2022 on charges that included conspiring to commit interstate harassment and criminal use of a means of identification.
Prosecutors alleged that Ziburis was hired to perform surveillance on the family and pose as a member of an international sports committee to ask Arthur for a copy of his and Alysa’s passports by claiming it was a travel ‘preparedness check’ related to Covid-19.
The complaint said when Arthur refused, Ziburis threatened to delay or deny them international travel.
Alysa visited the family’s ancestral homeland for the first time while at the Olympics in Beijing but she was given security assurances and escorted by at least two people at all times.
But through the spying investigation, he learned that China was aware of an Instagram message about human rights violations against the ethnic minority Uyghurs that his daughter once posted.
During the Games, Alysa also told her father that she was approached by a stranger late one night at a cafeteria after the free skate event, and that the man followed her and asked her to come to his apartment.
Liu visited China for the first time at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing but was escorted at all times
She scored 76.59 points on Tuesday night, leaving her just over two points behind her rivals
Speaking before this year’s Winter Olympics, Liu called the espionage scandal ‘a little bit freaky and exciting.’
‘You know what I mean? It’s so… unbelievable. You know what I mean like, that’s crazy,’ she told Fox News Digital back in October.
‘Like, imagine finding that out at such a young age, I mean, like in a weird way, I was like, “Am I like in some prank show?” Like, is this world real like I must be some movie character.
‘But, I mean, it was like it made sense to me, you know, from like everything my dad did back in his activist days.’
Now she could reach another milestone in her impressive career if she can get over the line on Thursday night.
The 20-year-old scored 76.59 points for an impeccable short program on Tuesday night, leaving her just over two points behind Nakai and less than a point back of Sakamoto in the individual competition.
Asked whether Liu thinks she can upstage Nakai and Sakamoto, she replied: ‘I don´t think about stuff like that.
‘Whether I beat them or not is not my goal. My goal is just to do my programs and share my story and I don´t need to be over or under anyone to do that.’
