The Olympic figure skater told PEOPLE exclusively about meeting the 14x-Grammy winner, whom she described as "really nice" after their sweet interaction
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NEED TO KNOW
- Alysa Liu opened up to PEOPLE exclusively about the “awesome” full-circle moment she had with Taylor Swift after the 2026 Winter Olympics
- The gold-medal-winning figure skater met the 14-time Grammy winner at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards in March to present her with the Artist of the Year honor
- Ahead of the Olympics, Swift introduced Liu and her fellow “Blade Angels” in a narrated video for the Winter Games
Talent recognizes talent!
Alysa Liu, 20, is opening up about the "awesome" full-circle moment she had with Taylor Swift after the 2026 Winter Olympics, where the figure skating phenom took home two gold medals for the United States in the women's individual singles and team events.
The 14-time Grammy winner first crossed paths with the gold medalist when she narrated the Olympic video introducing the "Blade Angels" — a trio of U.S. skaters including Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito — ahead of the Winter Games in February.
Credit: Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty
One month later, Liu and Swift met in person at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The pair united on stage after the athlete presented the singer-songwriter with the Artist of the Year honor.
"It was really awesome," Liu tells PEOPLE exclusively of that full-circle moment of getting to present Swift with the award after the musician honored her and her teammates with the Olympics narration.
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"She has such a big platform and so I was kind of just super grateful that she was shouting out all three of us," she continues. "Amber and Isabeau, they work so hard and it's cool to have someone with such a big platform to shout us out and get the recognition they deserve."
Liu adds, "I was glad that I was able to do that for her and meet her because she's really nice."
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Liu — who confirms she won't be going to Swift and Travis Kelce's upcoming wedding, expected to be held in New York City this summer — also got candid about life post-Olympics, and whether she's finally had time to process everything that's happened.
"Now it has settled in," she tells PEOPLE four months after the Winter Games. "At the end of our show tours, that's kind of when it hit me because those were all the people I was at the Olympics with and it was a beautiful moment… We've been together for two months 24/7."
"So that kind of closed the season for me because the Olympics, in reality, is really just like every other competition," she explains. "There's not really anything different, same competition set up and everything."
Liu adds, "So really for me, it was about finishing the season and the show tours and being with everyone all the time to all of a sudden us just going back to our usual season routine."
Since the Olympics, it's been a whirlwind of fun for Liu. In addition to the iHeartRadio Music Awards, she's walked several other red carpets and attended major award shows.
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In May, Liu made her Met Gala debut in a dramatic red ruffled gown that was inspired by her own athletic form when she hit the famed steps at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
"I love the [Costume Art] theme, especially as an athlete, because for me it's all about the relationship with clothing and our bodies as an artistic medium,” she told Vogue. "I'm a figure skater — we are the winter artistic sport."
The athlete, who was styled by Katie Qian, paired her strapless Louis Vuitton satin gown with matching heels. The dress featured a form-fitting bodice with a high-low bottom that flared out in ruffles.
Qian told the outlet that the theme of the evening was "perfect" for Liu because of her impressive career.
“She is an elite athlete who uses her body every day in training and performance, and she is also a true artist when developing her programs,” the stylist said.
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