Alysa Liu’s second act: Once burned out by skating, world champ now setting sights on Olympic glory

ST. LOUIS (AP) — It took Alysa Liu walking away from figure skating at its highest level to find out who she was.

Ultimately, she found her way back again.

Once the up-and-coming darling of American figure skating, Liu had surprised the entire community when she abruptly retired after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where she finished sixth. She was only 16 years old, yet Liu had been driven to rinks for unending practices for as long as she could remember, and she was tired of it — the singular focus on skating, the inability to be a kid.

“I really had nothing going on with my life, you know? Just training,” Liu, now 20, told The Associated Press in a wide-ranging interview as she prepared for this week’s U.S. championships and, most likely, the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy.

“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 said. “And so all that, I was like, ‘Skating is not worth it.’ Like, this is not worth it. I didn’t, you know, care about what I skated to, or what my dress was like. I let everyone else decide. So I was really like, ‘Who am I?’ I felt like a puppet other people were using.”

In the days, months and years after walking away, Liu began college at UCLA. Her network of friends quickly grew beyond the bounds of skating. She traveled. She even trekked to the Mount Everest Base Camp, where she finally felt on top of the world.

It wasn’t until Liu went on a skiing trip, and the adrenaline rush hit for the first time in ages, that she started to think about getting back on the ice. Not competing, just skating. But once that happened, and Liu realized her worldview had changed so dramatically in the intervening years that she was actually enjoying it, the idea of making a competitive comeback started to develop.

The rust shook free quickly. By the time nationals rolled around in January 2025, she was standing on the second step of the podium in Wichita, Kansas, after reigning champion Amber Glenn had defeated her by the second-smallest margin in history.

Liu was overjoyed.

“She didn’t have really anything to, quote-unquote, prove anymore,” Olympic champion and close friend Nathan Chen said. “She had already accomplished all the things that she set out to do. And I think that allowed her the freedom to just go off and be Alysa.”

Oh, but she was only getting started.

Two months later, Liu captured the hearts of the Boston crowd at the world championships. Her joy in performing was evident in the smiles she wore while winning both the short program and free skate, and dethroning three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan to become the first American woman to win the title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.

“I was one of the most excited people when I heard she was coming back,” said Kristi Yamaguchi, the 1992 Olympic champion who had watched Liu grow up in the skating rinks around their native San Francisco Bay area.

“Not just, ‘Oh, maybe she could represent the U.S. and do well,’” Yamaguchi said, “but I think she left a lot on the table. She was 16 when she stepped away. I was totally heartbroken. But I think she had to miss it in order to come back the way she did, and really have perspective and the empowerment that she had when she came back.”

Liu hasn’t stopped winning, either. She helped Team USA capture gold at the World Team Trophy last spring, then she won her first Grand Prix event at Skate America in November, before claiming the prestigious Grand Prix Final trophy in December.

“To take two years off and to come back, and come back all the way to win a world title, I think that in itself is what’s exceptional,” two-time U.S. champion and Olympic bronze medalist Gracie Gold said. “She didn’t win everything, it wasn’t an undefeated season, but I just thought she was really steady all season. She had this comfort level. She was authentic to herself.”

Now, Liu is headed to St. Louis this weekend for another U.S. championships.

She won the event in 2019 and 2020, before her skating hiatus, back when she was still a teenage wunderkind. It would be a full-circle moment to triumph again six years later, a continuation of a dream ride through the second act of her career.

“I really despised skating,” Liu said. “I thought that skating was the reason why all these bad things were happening to me. I thought that for so long, you know? 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. Nothing is hurt. I just compete so that I can, like, skate. Show my programs.”

It’s a different outlook — a healthier one, she says — for a still-young figure skater who has grown in unimaginable ways.

“Now I hang out with my friends all the time. I make weekend trips to see them,” Liu said. “I can do whatever I want. Free range, no rules, for however long I want. I live at home now. I drive myself to the rink. You know, I’m on my schedule now.”

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AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics