Above: Alysa Liu has returned to the ice on her terms. The two-time U.S. champion begins her comeback quest this weekend at Budapest Trophy.
By: Darci Miller
In fewer than two years, Alysa Liu went from the ISU World Figure Skating Championship podium to not even knowing where her skates were.
In April of 2022, Liu sent shockwaves through the figure skating world when she announced her retirement from the sport at age 16. It had already been a storied career, with Liu winning two U.S. titles and a bronze medal at the 2024 World Championships and becoming the fourth U.S. woman to land a triple Axel and the first U.S. woman to land a quad in competition.
But that was the point: after a seventh-place finish at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Liu had achieved everything she wanted to in skating. She was done.
“I got what I wanted,” Liu said. “I started skating when I was 5 and I never got a break, really. And I also wanted to go to school and experience that, because up until that point, I was homeschooled all through high school, and basically all of middle school as well. I was lacking experience in other things in the world. All I knew was skating, and I just wanted to live my life, I guess.”
Liu’s last obligation was the ice show in Sun Valley, Idaho, in the summer of 2022. Afterward, she put her skates away and began life as a normal teenager.
She spent lots of time with friends and family. She enrolled in UCLA, where she plans to go into psychology. She dabbled in other sports that skating had prevented her from trying, like skiing, and particularly enjoyed volleyball, basketball and tennis. She got into fashion, photography and dance, and explored Los Angeles, trying new cafes.
Ironically, it was her skiing experience that made her miss the skating career she thought she’d given up forever.
“At the very start of this year, I went skiing for the first time,” Liu said. “And I hadn’t felt that adrenaline rush, I guess, since I’d quit skating. It feels so similar to skiing. And so after I skied, I was like, ‘Wait, let me get on the ice and see what it feels like.’
“At this point, I still wasn’t planning to return. I just wanted to skate again because I hadn’t stepped on the ice since I last got off for my last show. I just wanted to get back on and see how skates felt, the whole thing. That first session, I tried the double Axel, and I could do it. I was like, ‘Oh.’”
Liu got her double Axel and triple Salchow back during that public session, which ended too quickly for her to try her other skills. She knew she wanted to come back to try everything else, just to see what she could do, but still wasn’t thinking about competing.
“In between every session I skated to start, there was like two weeks in between because I didn’t have time to go because I was in school and other stuff. I’d go back after like two weeks, try another jump, and then I’d only stay for like an hour at a time, so it’s like, how much can you do in an hour? I’d have to keep going back,” Liu said with a laugh.
After three months, Liu got her Lutz back.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can still do jumps,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Do I just want to skate for fun and just go to school?’ And then I was like, ‘I don’t know, I could definitely see myself doing school and skating at the same time.’ I never felt like I had that choice before, but I felt like I kind of could make the decision for myself. I was like, ‘Yeah, I can definitely do that.’ I called up my coach and we talked from there. When summer started was when we really got back to work.”
Liu had spent a year and a half off the ice, and she admits it was quite the adjustment getting back into it.
“It took a long time, and it was weird because I wasn’t used to wearing skates,” Liu said. “I kind of lost my skates, because I didn’t really need to look for them when I wasn’t skating. When I wanted to come back, I was like, ‘I don’t know where my skates are!’ It took a bit of time to even find those.”
While her skills have come back quickly, and she stretched more in retirement than she did while she was skating so her flexibility remained intact, Liu said her stamina is the biggest challenge. But she knows that will return with time, and she’s just enjoying being back on the ice and reuniting with some old friends.
She’s also been enjoying skating as an adult for the first time, as she turned 19 in August.
“I really am the one deciding for myself what to do,” Liu said. “I get to make my own schedule, which is nice. I drive myself to the rink, or I take the train, and I get to pick my session times, pick my lesson times. It’s all revolved around what I want to do, which I personally like. I get to decide what I want to wear to the rink, and which rinks I want to go to – all that. It’s liberating.”
And having more life experience has given Liu a new perspective on her skating career.
“I definitely see skating as something more of a hobby,” said the Bay Area skater. “I’m kind of taking it less seriously than before. Not in an, ‘Oh, I’m not going to train as hard’ kind of way, but it’s not my whole life. It’s just one of the hobbies I have, so I guess, in that way, I can really enjoy it. I’m not taking it too personally. Truly, it’s just for fun.”
Liu said her goal for this season is just to get back out there, compete internationally and do her best. She plans to stay in school while skating and is taking her return to competition one season at a time – no pressure.
Even just the one season is like a bonus, considering she never thought she’d be doing this again.
“I never thought I would be back,” Liu admitted. “If you had told 2020 me, or even 2023 me, I would’ve been like, ‘Uhhh, yeah, no, that’s not happening.’ Even my coach [Phillip DiGuglielmo] thought it was a prank when I told him that I kind of want to skate again. He fully thought I was kidding.”
But she’s not kidding, and she’ll compete in her first international competition since March of 2022 this weekend at Budapest Trophy; her first Grand Prix event is at Skate Canada in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Oct. 25-27.
One thing is for sure, though: Liu plans to maintain the well-balanced life she built during her retirement and continue prioritizing life experience outside the rink.
“There’s no end to it,” Liu said. “It’s constant and continuous. Outside of skating, I plan to keep it this way forever.”
