Olympian Alysa Liu Immortalized in LA by This Mexican-American Muralist
Gold medalist Alysa Liu of the United States displays her medal after competing in the women's free skate program in figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Olympian Alysa Liu, who just won two gold medals at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, has made a lot of headlines during the Olympics. And a lot of those have had to do with her improbable comeback, two years after retiring from the sport for good. Her return, complete with funky hair, piercings, and total control over her song selection, has turned Liu into not just a champion, but a star.
Now, Liu is being commemorated by an artist from our communities for her showing on the ice. Mexican-American artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. created a mural of Liu in Los Angeles, on a wall on Crenshaw Boulevard. Zermeño Jr. is a painter from Venice, Los Angeles, known for large, outdoor murals depicting SoCal sports and music icons like the Dodgers or Becky G. He’s also done murals for icons like Bad Bunny.
It all came to be in the most casual way. Zermeño was driving to get dinner near his home and noticed a wall he thought would be perfect for a mural. It turned out he knew the business owner. He started painting Tuesday, February 24 and hopes to be finished the first week of March.
The mural is set to feature 3 different images of Liu, two of her staking, and the headshot of her from the women’s singles ceremony, where she pretends to take a bite out of her gold medal.
“Obviously her winning gold was the main factor” in his choosing to paint Liu, Zermeño told the Los Angeles Times. But Zermeño Jr. also wanted to celebrate her story and her heritage. “She’s first-generation American, just like myself,” Zermeño said. “So I feel like that tie, her going to UCLA, her stopping skating for awhile and then jumping back in and more being herself — you know, growing up in Venice, I feel like that’s what kind of made me an artist. Venice allowed me to be myself, be wacky on the boardwalk, artists, performers, stuff like that.”
He also said, “But ultimately, I think she just deserves her flowers, man. She accomplished something, and I feel like her personality is what’s really garnering all this support from people.” And it seems like the world agrees as other murals have appeared around the world of Alysa Liu.