US Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu revealed that everyone has been pronouncing her name wrong.
During a recent interview with Newsweek, the 20-year-old clarified that her first name is pronounced “Ah-lee-sa” and her last name is pronounced “Lee-oh.”
“So technically this is how my family says my name,” she explained. “That’s technically how you say my name.”
The figure skater noted that “Ah-liss-uh” is how her friends and “the world” say her first name, while her last name is often mispronounced “Lu.”
“I personally don’t care,” she added of the common mistake. “Cause technically, the right way is ‘Lee-oh.’ But that can be hard to pronounce. I don’t expect people to know how to say that.”
Liu won gold during the Winter Olympics free skate competition, making her the first American to do so in 24 years.
The athlete told Teen Vogue last week what she did after her incredible showing at the Olympics.
“After I won, [there] was no sleep…. I went home and I literally did whatever I wanted for five days,” she shared.
“I didn’t have any media, and I had no commitments, so it was really great,” Liu continued. “I got to see a lot of my friends again, and just relax and catch up on sleep. I skated twice just because I wanted to.”
Liu also said that she would “jeopardize” her career to prioritize her loved ones.
“I pick hanging out with my friends over a session, and if that makes me a worse skater, so be it,” she told the outlet. “I don’t care.”
Liu has been dealing with intense fame since the Olympics, which came to a head when she was chased by a fan at the airport.
“So I land at the airport & there’s a crowd waiting at the exit with cameras & things for me to sign,” she wrote in a March 4 post on her Instagram Stories.
“All up in my personal space. Someone chased me to my car bruh,” she continued, before pleading, “Please do not do that to me.”
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