Ariana Grande Watches Alysa Liu Skate in Milan 2026 Promo Snow Globe

In a promo for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Ariana Grande appears gazing into a snow globe that contains Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu skating alone in a wintry, magical version of Milan’s cathedral. The video opens with 20-year-old Liu on a seemingly perfect icy surface as snow begins to fall and the sky shifts to pink and green—the colors representing Glinda (Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in the Wicked films.

As the familiar notes of "Defying Gravity" play, Grande shakes the snow globe, sending flakes toward Liu. Liu will be competing at the Winter Olympics for a second time, after a 2022 retirement that nearly ended her career. In a January 6, 2026 Associated Press story, Liu said she retired at 16 because she was unhappy competing, describing life at the training center: "I would live at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, in a dorm by myself.

I would eat their food. I went to the rink, skated, ate lunch there, skated some more. Went back to the dorm. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't see anything. I was just there." She told the AP that a ski trip reignited her love for the sport and she returned to competition, placing second at the 2025 U.S.

Figure Skating Championships and positioning herself for the 2026 Games. About her current mindset she said, "I really despised skating... But I realized through time, like, that's not the case. It doesn’t have to be like that. And yeah, so now I do not take the sport as seriously.

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