Alysa Liu, a U.S. figure skater who won gold at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics in February, has been honored with a mural in Gardena created by local artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr., who started the artwork on Feb. 23 and completed it on March 1. The mural is on a wall of Coe’s Glass and Mirrors, 15532 Crenshaw Blvd. at 156th Street. Liu, 20, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, is a student at UCLA and hails from Oakland, where a similar mural has been created by the Illuminaries, a local graffiti group. Zermeño, the son of Mexican immigrants and a graduate of UCLA, said he was inspired by Liu’s story and that the mural will stay up until the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
Liu is the first American woman to medal in figure skating at the Olympics since Sasha Cohen in 2006 and the first to win gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002. Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai won silver and bronze, respectively. Previous U.S. gold medalists in women’s figure skating are Tara Lipinski (1998), Kristi Yamaguchi (1992), Dorothy Hamill (1976), Peggy Fleming (1968), Carol Heiss (1960) and Tenly Albright (1956).