Alysa Liu adds her name to Bay Area’s Olympic skating icons

Alysa Liu joined the realm of Bay Area figure skating legends Thursday when her extraordinary free skate program earned her Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Games.

The 20-year-old Liu, once the youngest skater to win the U.S. championships, had icons of Northern California skating cheering her on in Italy: Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano were watching together from inside the arena as Liu ended the American skating gold drought of 24 years.

Vincent Zhou, a South Bay native who...