MHAM: Alysa Liu is Finally Skating on her own Terms

Figure skating was everything to Alysa Liu — until it wasn’t. The ice, once the stage for her passion, became a source of pressure, isolation and eventual burnout.

At only 16 years old, with her first Olympic Games already behind her, she hung up her skates — she thought for good.

But it was the ice and cold that brought her back.

Two years after retiring from figure skating, her family went on a ski trip. It was her first time on skis because she was never allowed before due to the risk of injury as a high-level athlete. It was then that the 19-year-old felt the cold on her face again, and longed for those familiar feelings in the rink. She decided to head back to the ice again, but this time with a renewed attitude.

On skates since 5, Liu had become the youngest U.S. figure skating national champion in history at the age of 13.

But after the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, where she placed seventh in singles, “I didn’t want to skate anymore,” she admitted about her early exit. “I didn’t have any goals, and I felt like I was just training for nothing and competing for no reason. I didn’t like it.”

When she decided to retire, it was because her life revolved around skating. “I was a kid,” she remembered, “and I didn’t want to be at the rink all day, every day.” Time off was rare, and it took a global pandemic shutting down the world to change all that. “That was my first break, and it made me realize that that’s what I really wanted.”

Stepping away from the sport allowed Liu to have a multifaceted life, one that included college, where she is now a sophomore at UCLA majoring in psychology. Growing up in an Asian American household, conversations about mental health were rare.

“My dad’s an immigrant from China. Mental health wasn’t something he ever learned about growing up, so of course, it wasn’t something that we talked about,” she shared.

But the oldest of five is helping shift that dynamic at home.

“We communicate a lot more now,” she said. “I’ve learned so much through school, but also through experience.”

When Liu decided to leave the only sport she’d ever known, her family had mixed reactions.

“My siblings liked the decision because it meant I could be with them more,” she said, “but my dad was a little bit sad.” For most of Liu’s life, her father spent his time driving her to and from the rink and wasn’t sure what to do with all his newfound free time. But the two of them quickly found other ways to keep busy.

When Liu stepped outside of her “bubble,” as she called it, she realized she really enjoyed other sports. Now, she said, “I play a lot of volleyball, tennis and basketball.”

She also found different outlets for her creativity.  “I love costume design, and I love the arts. I’m kind of a DIYer. I love working with colors and patterns and incorporating them into whatever ways I can: my hair, my clothing. I like to see my artistic visions come to light.”

These days, she revealed, “I don’t fit my life into skating — I fit skating into my life.”

Her new outlook on life is proving to be a successful one. Only seven months after returning to skating, she won her first competition, the CS Budapest Challenger Series. Fast forward a few months, and she took second at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Then this past March, she won gold at the world championships — the first American to win in almost 20 years.

Winning was extra emotional because worlds was the last competition she competed in — and finished third — before her previous decision to retire. The gold medal was the cherry on top.

“Winning and losing don’t affect me anymore,” she admitted. “I feel pretty indifferent about placements. Medaling doesn’t fulfill me. I skate because I like to skate.”

Her shift in mindset is what enabled her to return to the sport, as well as reemerge online, where she started posting to social media again.

“Before, I didn’t feel connected to my programs because I didn’t create them. Now, I am proud of them and want to share,” Liu said. But that doesn’t mean she is looking for acceptance.

“Nothing can get to me anymore,” she shared, “because I don’t seek outside approval.”

In fact, she’s so proud of her new programs that she hopes the world gets to see them. More specifically, next year at the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026.

While Liu admitted that she’d love to go to Milan, her return to the ice a year ago wasn’t motivated by medals or rankings, but rather, freedom.

“Every day I choose to be on the ice,” she said simply. “I go with the flow, I take it day by day, and I stay connected to what I love, but I don’t attach myself to it. I know myself well now, and nothing can take me off the path I’m meant to go on.”

Lisa Costantini has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than a decade, including for the International Olympic Committee. She is a freelance writer who has contributed to TeamUSA.com since 2011.