Driftsprint

By Tyler ErzbergerShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

Every day is a new achievement for Alysa Liu.

The women's figure skating world champion and new Olympic gold medalist returned to her home in the Bay Area, where murals welcomed her as she touched down in San Francisco.

One month ago, Liu was a figure skating star.

Now?

She's a worldwide megastar, not only in sports but in pop culture as a whole.

The music she performed at the Olympics has seen its numbers surge onto the charts following Liu's routines.

Women (and men) are copying her haloed hairstyle. People are getting her frenulum piercing to be like her. At a recent meet-and-greet with fans, a slew of small girls came to meet their new hero, asking her to sign their dolls, skates, fan art, and anything they could think to bring Liu.

And during all that, she was making Winter Olympics history online without doing anything.

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Liu arrived in Milan from the plane with a little over 200,000 followers. She left Milan with 5 million followers and growing on Instagram, making history as the most-followed figure skater on the platform.

Although she hasn't performed in over a week and has only posted a few times on her Instagram since winning double gold in Milan, Liu made more history over the weekend.

She is now the most-followed Winter Olympian on Instagram, surpassing the Netherlands' speedskating superstar Jutta Leerdam with 6.8 million followers.

Liu will look to defend her crown in a few weeks in Prague at the Figure Skating World Championships. After that, with the season done, she should finally get rest before the next season.

If she wants to become the most-followed Olympian overall on Instagram, that might need more help, as she would have to surpass her countryman, LeBron James.

James, with three gold medals in his career, sits out of reach with 157 million followers.

But hey, if she links up with fellow Bay Area legend Steph Curry, maybe anything is possible for Liu.

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