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While Alysa Liu's gold medal victory at the 2026 Winter Olympics is the centerpiece of her soaring public profile, a clip from May 2025, in which she executed a move from the world of figure skating before throwing out a ceremonial first pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals, has exploded back onto social media feeds as fans celebrate her historic skating triumphs.
Liu's presence in St. Louis last spring was billed as a fun crossover moment: a worldclass figure skater invited to toss a first pitch ahead of a Major League Baseball game.
What made the clip stand out was the way she took the mound.
Liu was invited as the honorary ceremonial pitcher before a matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Rather than taking the mound in a conventional windup, she performed a figure skating double axel, a jump that requires precise balance, speed, and control, just in front of the pitcher's rubber before delivering the ball.
The video quietly circulated at the time, earning laughs and praise for its sheer audacity.
But in the wake of Liu's Olympic victories, her team gold and then individual gold in women's figure skating, the throw has taken on new life online, with TikTok and X users marveling at the athleticism she showed off long before her Winter Games performances made her a household name.
For the St. Louis community specifically, the moment now exists as a footnote in the city's rich sporting tapestry.
Fans recall that spring afternoon as much for Liu's flair and charisma as for the game itself, the 50 win by the Cardinals over Pittsburgh on that day only added to the festive atmosphere.
Liu's historic win
This year, fans saw Liu deliver what many called the peak performance of her career.
Competing in the women's free skate, she earned a combined score of 226.79, becoming the first American woman since Sarah Hughes in 2002 to win Olympic gold in the event.
Her free skate, performed to Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park", captivated judges and audiences alike, vaulting her into the lead and cementing her as a defining figure of the 2026 Games.
Liu's story is as compelling as the viral clips that have followed her. The 20yearold American began skating in 2010 and quickly established herself as a prodigy, becoming the youngest U.S. national champion at 13.
She captured a world bronze medal in 2022 and then shocked the figure skating world by announcing her retirement shortly afterward.
Yet the itch to compete returned, and Liu made her comeback during the 2024-25 season.
She carried that momentum into the Olympic year, winning the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships, a first for an American woman in nearly two decades, and dominating the Grand Prix Final along the way.