U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu may have wowed fans at this week’s 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships with a bold new free skate set to the music of Lady Gaga – but the program’s future at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026* is up in the air.
In an exclusive conversation with Olympics.com’s Gracie Gold, Liu opened up about her music switch. She revealed that the Gaga program likely won’t make the cut for her Olympic free skate.
“I don’t even think I’m going to do [it] at the Olympics,” said Liu. “But I really wanted to do it once at least… I always wanted to do MacArthur Park for the individual free skate event.”
The program, which the 20-year-old had debuted in September, originally included Gaga’s “Bloody Mary.” Since then, it’s gone through a series of iterations due to music rights issues.
“At first I wanted the orchestral version, but… you can’t just use someone’s orchestral version of “Bloody Mary” off YouTube,” she explained. “So, no orchestral, no Bloody Mary. That’s how it was in my head.”
Though the Gaga program was completed ahead of December’s Grand Prix Final, which the American won with her signature MacArthur Park free skate, Liu opted to save it for U.S. Championships.
“I was training MacArthur Park like two times a week, but the rest of the time it was the Lady Gaga program,” she said of her approaching coming into competition.
As for Milano? Liu is sticking to her long-held vision: “It was always gonna be MacArthur Park.”
She added that a revamped dress design – still metallic, but with a fresh twist – is also in the works.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Winter Games, athletes’ participation at Milano Cortina 2026 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Games.
