‘It is what it is’: Alysa Liu opens up about surrogacy and her ‘mom’

Alysa found international stardom after winning two gold medals, one in the team event and another in the women’s singles at the 2026 Winter Olympics. With her latter victory, Liu became the first American female figure skater to reach the Olympic podium since 2006, and the first to win gold since 2002.

Behind this stellar success is a fascinating family history. Alysa’s father, Arthur Liu, fled China after participating in protests in 1989 and eventually relocated to the Bay Area in San Francisco. Once settled in the U.S., he chose to build a large family as a single father. He welcomed five children, with Alysa being the eldest, via surrogacy using anonymous egg donors.

In a past interview that resurfaced after Alysa became famous at the Olympics, Arthur noted that he intentionally chose Caucasian egg donors for his children, as he “felt his children would ultimately benefit from a diverse gene pool.”

Alysa, 20, and her four siblings do not know their biological mothers. However, Arthur was in a long-term relationship with a woman who helped raise all of the children. This is the maternal figure whom Alysa and her siblings refer to as “mom,” according to Sports Illustrated.

When speaking about how she eventually discovered she was born via surrogacy with an anonymous egg donor, Liu told the Rolling Stone: “I mean, we didn’t know about it for a long time. I actually figured it out because, I don’t know, our dad is full Chinese, too. And I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I totally don’t look full Chinese. Like, there’s something up.’

“And my mom’s really old. Like, there’s no way she gave birth to me.’ So, I kind of put two and two together. I mean, it hasn’t affected our family at all. We were just kind of like, ‘Sure. It is what it is.'”

Besides her historic accomplishments, Alysa’s distinct quirks and unshakeable confidence have captured hearts of fans around the world and turned her into a star, both on and off the ice.