Lessons in pressure and resiliency from 2026 Olympics figure skaters

My current obsession is the figure skating at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics - where, along with many stunning performances, we saw the results of Pressure play out in front of a world audience. There are also a ton of stories about resiliency and perseverance in the face of pressure. I was taken with how this played out very differently for two different US skaters. Alysa Liu's back story (and she's still only 20!) is inspiring in this regard, as is, for different reasons, Ilia Malinin's fall(s) (literally) in the face of pressure, and his subsequent gracious and open response.


Three of these can only be played on YouTube, but the links seem to work. If you can, turn up the volume!

Alysa's heart-lifting and joyful gold medal performance at the women's final:


Ilia Makinin's powerful and vulnerable solo for the final gala:


And, to recover from that, Amber Glenn and Alysa Liu enjoying themselves at the gala with their numbers:




These are official NBC/Peacock or Team USA/Milano-Cortina 2026 videos, and I don't know how long they'll stay up. Enjoy them while you can!