Between her record-breaking Eras Tour, her unprecedented success at the Grammy Awards, and her superstar fiancé’s dominance on the football field, it seems like everything Taylor Swift touches turns to gold. And that was the case once again this week.
Heading into the 2026 Winter Olympics, the United States had not won an Olympic medal of any kind in the women’s figure skating individual competition in two decades. The last American woman to win a medal was Sasha Cohen, who won a silver medal at the 2006 Olympic Games. The last woman to win gold was Sarah Hughes back in 2002.
This time, however, U.S. figure skating sensation Alysa Liu ended that drought with a gold medal victory, and she did it with some support from the biggest pop star on the planet.
In the days leading up to the competition, Swift took to Instagram to send a message of support to Liu and the other two Americans competing, who called themselves the “Blade Angels.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Amber, Alysa and Isabeau,” the pop sensation said to start the video, before referring to them as “three American showgirls on ice,” a nod to her latest hit album, The Life of a Showgirl. She added that their stories will “capture your heart.”
“Amber will be the first to tell you about how many battles she’s fought, and how the ones she’s lost have meant as much as the wins,” Swift said of 26-year-old Glenn. “Her superpower now is embracing the fight and daring the world to test her self-belief.”
“As for Alysa, she walked away from skating when she was 16, then came back on her own terms. Joy fuels her now. Every jump, a celebration. Every performance, a testament to the beauty to know yourself,” Swift explained of Liu, 20, who previously announced her retirement from the sport after the 2022 Beijing Games.
“And then Isabeau. I mean, she’s destiny personified,” Swift said of the 18-year-old. “Her mom grew up in Milan, and her nonna, her grandma, lives exactly 13 minutes from the Olympic rink. When you can skate like you’re meant to be out there, history has a fun way of showing up.”
“They’re teammates and friends. They call themselves the Blade Angels, and tomorrow night, they’re taking center stage when the show starts in Milan,” the video concludes.
Obviously, it was Liu who did the work on the ice, but it’s certainly fitting that the first gold medal in two decades came immediately after Swift threw her support behind the team.
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