f.After 22 years of waiting since Sarah Hughes, American figure skating finally has its moment again — and it came from the girl who once said “no” to the pressure. Alysa Liu didn’t just win gold. She rewrote what a comeback is supposed to look like.f

Alysa Liu. USA women’s hockey. Mikaela Shiffrin. Breezy Johnson. Elana Meyers Taylor. USA women’s curling. Lindsey Vonn. Amber Glenn. And so, so many others.

Women were the biggest winners these past two weeks. Here are a few of my favorites whose backstories you may have missed…

BEING YOURSELF PAYS OFF 🥇 Alysa Liu took her place on the top step of the podium and threw both hands in the air.

“I literally can’t process this,” she said.

The U.S. figure skater who won her first national title at 13 years old, walked away from the sport at 16, came back at 18, became world champion at 19 was now an Olympic gold medalist at 20 — the first American woman to capture individual gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002.

But what a lot of people don’t know is that her story is only possible because of an immigrant.

Alysa Liu’s dad Arthur was exiled to America (like many of the refugees the current president is trying to evict) when he was 25 after standing up to the government in his native China made it no longer safe for him to live there.

He settled in California, became a successful lawyer, had five daughters — all through a surrogate — and raised them as a single dad.

In 2021, Arthur’s home country came calling. They were trying to buy back the Liu family’s loyalty and get Alysa to skate for their country in the 2022 Winter Games.

Arthur said no — and stood by America, the land that he loves 🇺🇸

This week, Alysa proudly won gold for the country they call home — one that actively hates many immigrants like them.

Immigrants often work harder than native born Americans. They often love this country more because of the sacrifices they made to get here.

Alysa and Arthur are not exceptions.

They’re the rule ❤️

“SHE WORKED SO HARD. THIS IS GOING TO MAKE SURE A GREAT IMPACT.” 🥹 Talk about women supporting women!!!

Amber Glenn didn’t wallow in her own disappointment after finishing fourth in the women’s singles.

Sure, SHE would’ve loved to have been the one standing there atop the podium with a gold medal around HER neck.

But, instead, she’s Alysa’s #1 fan ❤️

Amber also ignited a far too often overlooked, taboo topic: The fact that women often compete WHILE ACTIVELY BLEEDING. (And sometimes while wearing all white!) They deserve a medal just for THAT! 😝

“5th OLYMPIC MEDAL. 1st AS A MOM.” 💖 Kaillie Humphries has one of the coolest stories of the Games: in 2010, 2014, and 2018, she competed for Canada, her birth country, and won two golds and a bronze.

With her victory in 2014, she became the first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title and was named flagbearer for the Olympic closing ceremony.

Then, she spoke up.

In 2019, Kaillie switched to representing the United States because of alleged abuse and harassment she faced from the Canadian bobsled federation.

She immediately won three IBSF World Championship medals for Team USA in the 2020 and 2021 seasons — making her a five-time world champion and the most decorated woman in bobsled history.

She also swept the two-woman and monobob events at the 2021 IBSF World Championships, making her the first female bobsledder to win a double world title.

Humphries was named to the U.S. bobsledding team for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, two months after she became a naturalized United States citizen, and won gold in the monobob event. This gold medal win meant she was the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals for two different countries (United States and Canada), and the first person to win Olympic gold medals for the United States AND Canada.

This week, Humphries won bronze in the monobob — finishing behind Elana Meyers Taylor (gold, USA) and Laura Nolte (silver, Germany).

She is an inspiration for women, moms, survivors, athletes, and everyone everywhere!

RESPECT 🇨🇦 Finally, after their tough loss to Team USA, Canada’s captain Marie-Philip Poulin hugged, congratulated, and consoled every teammate one-by-one 🥺

Like USA’s Hilary Knight, Poulin’s played in the past 5 games, and scored the gold medal-winning goal in a remarkable THREE of them.

So many winning women, and I’m not done yet… More to come tomorrow (and might even throw in some men, too!) 💖