Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu has a unique family background. Her father, Arthur Liu, was a single dad who used a surrogate and anonymous egg donors to have his five kids.

“They were born to two surrogate mothers through anonymous egg donors,” NBC Sports reported of Arthur’s five kids, adding that he told Alysa about it in 2013 when she asked, “Why do I look different? Why don’t I look Chinese?” According to NBC Sports, in a 2018 article, Arthur revealed that Alysa has met the surrogate.

Arthur Liu Raised Alysa as a Single Father But Had Help From His Mom, Reports Say

The 2018 article by NBC Sports describes Arthur’s background. It says that he was born in a Chinese mountain village to a farmer mother and a government worker dad. They didn’t have electricity. Eventually, he attended a boarding school in a larger city, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees before leaving for California. He obtained a law degree in the United States and started a career as a lawyer.

According to that article, “He also is a single father of five children ranging in age from Alysa” to, at the time, 9-year-old triplets.

“Alysa and a friend had almost figured it out on their own,” Arthur Liu told NBC Sports. “So she wasn’t surprised when I told her.” His mother, Shu, and a friend helped raise Alysa and her siblings, according to NBC Sports.

Arthur elaborated to The San Francisco Chronicle, about using a surrogate, “I had always wanted to have kids, and I was already 40.”

Alysa told KCRA that she had fun growing up. “When we were little, we would all sleep in the same room [in] three bunk beds, it was so fun,” she recalled during a 2025 interview with KCRA. “We would stay up late, like crawling around the bunk beds … honestly, I kind of miss it.”

In China, Arthur Liu “organized pro-Democracy protests in China before fleeing the country in 1989,” USA Today reported, adding that Arthur escaped China by secretly boarding a boat to Hong Kong.

Alysa told USA Today, “And then my best friend’s parents, they knew about it. So they would tell my best friend the stories and my best friend would report it back to me and be like, ‘Did you know this?’ And I’d be like, ‘What?’”

Alysa Liu’s Dad, Arthur Liu, 1st Spotted Her Skating Talent

According to People, Arthur funded and first spotted his daughter’s figure skating talent. “I spared no money, no time,” he said during a 60 Minutes special, according to People. “I just saw the talent.”

After the 2022 Olympics, she took a break from skating because she didn’t want to miss ever being able to live with her family, The Guardian reported.

“I knew that if I continued skating, I would never have a chance at home,” she said.

To USA Today, Arthur described himself as “very pragmatic. I’m down to earth. I’m just step-by-step things and stuff like that.”