THE GOLD MEDAL THAT ALMOST SLIPPED AWAY FROM AMERICA — Alysa Liu’s father reveals his daughter once nearly abandoned her figure skating dream when the family was targeted in a harassment campaign aimed at overseas dissident voices.
According to him, anonymous calls and vague threats in 2021 left the household living in fear for months, pushing the young talent to the brink of quitting before she became America’s “ice queen” at the 2026 Winter Olympics — turning her gold medal journey into a story of survival behind the dazzling lights.
Alysa Liu’s father tells the real story of how brush with Chinese spies came close to derailing daughter’s Olympic skating dream
She is America’s undisputed ice queen after skating her way to gold medal glory at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
But Alysa Liu’s refugee father has revealed just how close the 20-year-old sensation came to quitting the sport for good when she was hounded by ruthless Chinese spies.
The figure skater’s ordeal dates back to a brazen 2021 plot to harass and intimidate US-based opponents of Xi Jinping’s communist regime.
Party apparatchiks are said to have drawn up a secret list of enemies that included Alysa’s dissident dad, Arthur Liu, who fled to the West in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The crony they hired to doorstep Arthur’s California home in October 2021, posing as an official from the US Olympic Committee, seemed an unlikely Chinese spy.
But Arthur sensed something was wrong when Matthew Ziburis, 53 – a burly private bodyguard and former State of Florida correctional officer – demanded copies of their passports.
‘He said something about pre-international travel readiness, but he wasn’t very convincing,’ Arthur, 61, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.
‘I’ve been dealing with US Figure Skating for many years, so I knew this wasn’t a legitimate way of going about things. I sent him packing.’
Gold medalist Alysa Liu almost quit skating at 20 after being hounded by ruthless Chinese spies, her refugee father revealed to the Daily Mail
Arthur Liu told the Daily Mail about the family’s 2022 ordeal, when a Chinese spy targeted their family in a brazen attempt to harass and intimidate US-based opponents of Xi Jinping’s regime
It was only when the FBI contacted him a week later that Arthur, a Bay Area attorney and lifelong pro-democracy campaigner, began to piece things together.
Alysa, a prodigious talent who became the youngest ever US figure skating champion at age 13, was preparing for Beijing 2022, her first Olympics.
If she could be persuaded to represent China, it would have been a stunning propaganda coup for Xi’s ‘naturalization project’.
But if Alysa refused and instead voiced dissent from the medal podium it could have meant global humiliation.
‘There was contact, that’s about all I want to say about it,’ said Arthur.
The seemingly unlikely spy was Matthew Ziburis, 53 – a private bodyguard and former State of Florida correctional officer – who demanded copies of their passports when he arrived at their family home
‘I continued to organize protests and demonstrations against the Chinese government for many years after arriving in the US.
‘Given my background, it was impossible for me to allow her to compete on their behalf.’
That refusal, Arthur believes, sealed the family’s ordeal.
Alysa is regarded as a prodigious talent who became the youngest ever US figure skating champion at age 13 Father and daughter attended a press conference at Oakland Ice Center in 2019 when Alysa was 13
Arthur is viewed as a dissident to the Chinese Communist Party – fleeing China for the West in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
When Ziburis demanded Arthur and Alysa Liu’s passport, Arthur became suspicious because he knew this was not the usual procedure – a concern confirmed a week later when the FBI contacted him
Ziburis flew out to Richmond, California, with instructions to plant hidden cameras and use a GPS tracker to monitor Arthur’s every move, according to a federal indictment.
A colleague spotted him skulking along the corridor of Arthur’s law offices.
But when the FBI rang to warn Arthur that Ziburis was en route to the family home for a second time, he and his daughter were one step ahead.
‘He was driving to our house while we were boarding a plane,’ Arthur recalled.
‘It was a game of cat and mouse. I felt like I was in a movie.’
The pair were headed to US Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs where Arthur arranged for Alysa to live and train until she left for Beijing the following February.
Being wrenched from her friends and four younger siblings left the starlet feeling lonely and miserable, Arthur conceded.
‘Alysa hated it there,’ he said. ‘I sensed that she was very unhappy leading into the Olympic Games.’
In the midst of Arthur’s dealings with the FBI, Arthur and Alysa headed to the US Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs where he arranged for his daughter to live and train until she left for Beijing the following February
Being separated from her friends and four younger siblings left the starlet lonely and miserable, Arthur admitted, adding on to her deep unhappiness and lack of passion for the sport she had been involved in since age five
A month after Alysa and another competitor were approached in the facility’s canteen by an unknown man who invited them to his apartment, she bagged bronze at the World Championships in France
Arthur’s activism meant it was impossible to get a Chinese travel visa to accompany his daughter, but State Department officials promised she would be safe.
Alysa, the youngest athlete named to the US Olympic team, placed sixth in the women’s singles – but an unnerving encounter soured her experience.
‘She was with another competitor in the canteen when a man approached them and invited them to his apartment,’ Arthur said.
‘They of course said no and reported this to the US delegation.
‘There was apparently nothing on the security cameras but if Alysa says someone approached and followed her, I know who I believe.’
A month later Alysa bagged bronze in the World Championships in France, but her father feared she had lost her passion for the sport she took up at age five.
She didn’t even warn him before announcing her retirement via Instagram.
‘It’s been an insane 11 years. A lot of good and a lot of bad but yk that’s just how it is,’ Alysa wrote in April 2022.
