After quitting figure skating as a whole at age 17 and winning a second consecutive U.S. title in 2020, to becoming an Olympic champion by age 20.
Alysa Liu began figure skating at the age of five in the Bay Area, California. She trained in Oakland and quickly developed as a prodigy. Skating has always been a part of her, throughout her entire life, even when she decided to drop the sport entirely at 17. At her age, she was exquisitely talented and skilled in her sport, being the first U.S. woman to land a quadruple jump (quad Lutz) and a triple Axel in the same competition. As young as she is, world renowned figure skaters around the world watch her performances in awe.
Liu has overall been skating for 16 years total, considering that she’s been skating since she was five and is now 20. Her father, a Chinese immigrant, spent immense money in order to keep up with her icy dream. Fortunately, this would pay off because at the ripe age of seven years old, Liu was already competing at the national level. This skill rise would continue until she reached adulthood, and continue throughout it, still staying with her today. “I think that she is very empowering and inspiring to women in sports, and I think that her story is very motivating for young girls who aspire to become Olympic athletes,” Olivia Simpson said, a Junior at Bullitt East.
Skating is something that has always stuck with Liu. From starting as a young prodigy in figure skating, to quitting at thirteen, to becoming an olympic gold medalist in the same sport, Liu has been through it all. Liu’s joyful, carefree personality won fans over during the Milan Cortina Games. It helped, of course, that she brought home two gold medals for Team USA. Liu’s medal in the women’s singles event was the first by an American woman since 2006, and first gold since 2002, ending the drought and making her the new face of U.S. figure skating. Liu had just 355,000 Instagram followers on the day of the opening ceremony. She now has 6 million, surpassing Winter Olympic superstars such as skiers Eileen Gu (4.1 million), Lindsey Vonn (3.6 million), and Mikaela Shiffrin (1.6 million).
