Then there’s her frenulum piercing, seen in photos as a piece of jewlery that extends through through the underside of her upper lip. Speaking with NBC<\/a>, Liu explained that she did the piercing herself. \u201cI had my sister hold up my lip, and I was looking in the mirror, and I had my piercing needle,\u201d she said of the procedure from around two years ago. The home job was motivated by cost, she said in a 2024 podcast interview<\/a>. \u201cGetting pierced at a shop is really expensive for no reason,” she said, “so I thought I\u2019d learn it myself, be a little DIY-girl.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu’s willingness to walk away from the sport and her devil-may-care attitude about her look has inspired social media excitement, such as an X post<\/a> saying \u201calisa liu being the first woke idgafer alt baddie to win an olympic gold medalist.\u2026THAT’S how you make america great again.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that attitude is Liu’s refusal to compromise. \u201cThese titles are huge, but I don\u2019t want them to overshadow who I am and what I do and what I am all about,\u201d Liu said<\/a> after winning her gold medal. \u201cWinning isn\u2019t all that, and neither is losing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThrough retirement, I realized I am a little bit like a creative person, and I have these ideas.\u00a0I have my own sense of fashion and I\u2019m a little bit stubborn with it.\u00a0I love choreography and music, and I do it on my own terms.\u00a0No one tells me what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Alysa Liu<\/p>\n <\/span>WANG ZHAO\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Alysa Liu<\/p>\n <\/span>GABRIEL BOUYS\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Originally published in Vanity Fair Italy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Alysa](\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6999c803e4f9a014995805f3\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/7_GettyImages-2261966364.jpg\"\/)
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