Alysa Liu’s inspiring triumph following a terrifying ordeal
Olympic champion Alysa Liu came perilously close to abandoning figure skating entirely after being targeted by Chinese intelligence operatives, her father has disclosed, reports BritPanorama.
The 20-year-old American sensation claimed gold at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics last week, becoming the first US woman to win an individual skating medal in 24 years.
Yet Arthur Liu, who fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, has now revealed the harrowing ordeal that nearly destroyed his daughter’s career. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, the Bay Area attorney described how agents working for Beijing’s communist regime attempted to surveil and intimidate their family in 2021.
The harassment left the teenage prodigy so traumatised that she walked away from the sport she had pursued since the age of five. The plot centred on Matthew Ziburis, a 53-year-old former Florida corrections officer who arrived at the Liu family’s California residence in October 2021, posing as a representative from the US Olympic Committee.
Ziburis demanded copies of their passports under the guise of preparing for international travel. Arthur immediately grew suspicious. “He said something about pre-international travel readiness, but he wasn’t very convincing,” he told the Daily Mail. “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.”
His instincts proved correct when FBI agents contacted him just seven days later, confirming that Ziburis was operating as a Chinese agent. Federal prosecutors allege the operative had been instructed to install concealed surveillance cameras and GPS tracking devices to monitor Arthur’s movements.
Alysa had become a target of Beijing’s so-called “naturalization project”, an initiative designed to recruit ethnically Chinese athletes residing overseas. At just 13, she had made history as the youngest US figure skating champion, making her an attractive prospect for Chinese officials seeking a propaganda victory.
“There was contact, that’s about all I want to say about it,” Arthur acknowledged. Had Alysa agreed to represent China, it would have delivered a significant coup for Xi Jinping’s regime. Conversely, any dissent from the medal podium could have proved deeply embarrassing for Beijing.
Arthur, who organised protests and hunger strikes as a student leader at Zhongshan University following the Tiananmen crackdown, was resolute in his refusal. “Given my background, it was impossible for me to allow her to compete on their behalf,” he explained.
When the FBI warned Arthur that Ziburis was returning for a second visit, father and daughter were already boarding a flight to safety. “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 relocated to US Figure Skating headquarters in Colorado Springs, where Alysa would train until departing for the Beijing Games in February 2022. Separated from her friends and four younger siblings, the teenager grew increasingly despondent. “Alysa hated it there,” her father admitted. “I sensed that she was very unhappy leading into the Olympic Games.”
At Beijing 2022, she finished sixth but experienced another disturbing incident when an unknown man approached her and a fellow competitor in the canteen, inviting them to his flat.
The following month, Alysa secured bronze at the World Championships in France, yet her passion had evaporated. Without warning, her father said, she announced her retirement on Instagram at just 16. Alysa enrolled at UCLA to study psychology and spent nearly two years away from the ice, even trekking through the Himalayas. “I feel like she was suffering from PTSD during that time,” Arthur reflected.
Her passion reignited unexpectedly in January 2024 following a skiing trip to Lake Tahoe. Within weeks, she informed her father she had resumed training. The comeback proved spectacular at Milano Cortina, where she executed seven triple jumps flawlessly before 12,000 adoring spectators. “She had speed, grace, elegance. She was sheer joy on ice,” Arthur said.
Her triumph attracted 4.5 million new Instagram followers overnight. Ziburis, meanwhile, has pleaded guilty to acting as a foreign government agent and conspiracy to commit interstate harassment, facing up to 15 years imprisonment.
In the end, Liu’s journey stands as a testament to resilience — a story of both personal triumph and the shadows lurking in the background of international sports.
