It has been quite a journey for Alysa Liu and her figure skating career. She is still just 20 years old, but she’s already been through a lot. This includes having to walk away from the sport at the age of 16.
Liu was just 5 when she started skating. She immediately fell in love with the sport. It was clear from the get-go that she was a special talent. By the age of 7, she was already competing at the national level. She became the youngest U.S. national champion at 13.
Liu’s trajectory continued through her teenage years. At 16, she had reached her breaking point.
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Liu competed in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. It was a dream come true for her to take part in the Winter Games. At the same time, however, her career had become a nightmare.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the 20-year-old admitted that she entered the 2022 Olympics knowing full well it would be her last dance.
“I had my plan: ‘I’m just going to go to the Olympics and then quit,’” she said. “And that’s what I did.”
Liu shocked the figure skating world by retiring months after the Beijing Games. She turned her back on an extremely promising career to reclaim the life she had lost through the sport she once loved.
“I got my driver’s license, so I was more free,” Liu said about her time away from ice skating. “I could go wherever I wanted, hang out with my friends, take my siblings out. That helped me feel like my own person.”
Liu also shared that it was only at that point in her life that she was able to take her first vacation. She went on a trip with her best friend’s family. “We were just at the beach for a week, swimming a ton,” Liu said.
The Oakland, California, native also enrolled in college. She started studying psychology at UCLA — a subject that she was “always into.”
Liu returned to figure skating in 2024. This time around, over, it was on her own terms. She took full control of her career, which turned out to be the best decision she ever made.
A year later, she was back at the top. Liu won the 2025 World Championships. She carried that momentum to the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Liu won two gold medals in Italy. In her triumphant return to the Olympic stage, she helped lead Team USA to a first-place finish in the team competition. Liu then reached the pinnacle by winning the individual competition.
Liu became the first U.S. female ice skater to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics in 24 years. It was also the first singles medal for America in the women’s competition since 2006.
