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MILAN — The emotions sometimes creep up on Alysa Liu during this short program. It’s an especially personal performance. And Laufey’s “Promise” touches a special place for Liu, who was well into her retirement when the song came out in 2023.
This time, Liu couldn’t ward off the emotion. This moment deserved sentiment.
“It’s totally because my siblings are here,” Liu said, adding that the song connects with them and her life.
“I didn’t see my siblings very much the last time I was a skater, and they also never came to competitions,” she said. “The fact that they get to watch this program — it’s their first time seeing it, my first time performing it for them. That was very special.”
For Liu, emotion isn’t determinant. It’s power. It’s a reminder of her purpose. And somehow, that centers her in the moment when focus is paramount and execution everything.
She couldn’t help but peek at her family in the crowd in the middle of her double axel. And again during her step sequence. Stolen glances in millisecond windows gave her what she needed this night.
And Liu gave the United States what it needed at the Olympics.
She bordered on flawless Tuesday during the short program of the women’s figure skating competition. After a season-best score of 76.59, she sits in third place heading into the free skate. She’s 2.12 points behind the leader, Ami Nakai of Japan.
Japan’s Ami Nakai is the surprise leader after the short program. (Joosep Martinson / Getty Images)
Barring a miracle, Liu now represents the United States’ last chance to end its 20-year Olympic medal drought in women’s figure skating. The last American medal in women’s figure skating came in 2006 in Turin, Italy, about two hours west of Milan, when Sasha Cohen won silver.
Since figure skating became a regular competition in the Olympics in 1920, the United States had never gone more than two cycles without a medal. The current drought is four straight cycles. The U.S. entered the women’s competition with three contenders, considering all of the Americans currently rank in the top five in the world rankings.
But on the final day of competition, the hope rests on the surest shoulders.
What’s more, Liu embodies the last hope for salvaging what has been an underwhelming Olympics for U.S. Figure Skating, which either way leaves Milan with a lightweight bounty relative to talent. After winning gold in the team event, America currently boasts just the silver medal won by Madison Chock and Evan Bates in ice dance. And even that was disappointing.
Neither of the U.S. pairs were serious medal contenders. Ilia Malinin’s disastrous free skate ended the United States’ hopes in the men’s competition. And Tuesday night, the U.S. effectively lost a prime contender in Amber Glenn.
No. 3 in the world, the highest-ranked American woman, Glenn tanked her short program score with an invalidated element. Her score of 67.39 left her in 13th of the 24 skaters to advance to Thursday’s final. She sits more than 11 points off the podium heading into the free skate. A near-impossible position.
Isabeau Levito, the third American to qualify for the Olympics, managed a clean skate but needed to be sublime to make major noise in the short program. Her score of 70.84 ranks eighth, just 3.45 points ahead of Glenn. Both will need perfect performances and some skaters to falter ahead of them to medal. Neither stopped for interviews with writers in the mixed zone Tuesday night.
Amber Glenn didn’t complete a required triple jump, leading to a loss of points that has likely taken her out of contention. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
That puts considerable pressure on Liu. She’s perhaps the best skater for the situation because she shuns pressure. She rejects it as a premise. It’s why she’s in this situation, how her mind processes anxiousness and converts it into appreciation.
“She skates for herself and the audience, not for the numbers or the ranking,” NBC broadcaster Tara Lipinski, the 1998 gold medalist, said of Liu on the broadcast. “I think that’s her secret weapon. She skates in this bubble where she doesn’t feel the pressure, and that’s why she’s winning.”
What might sound like nonchalance is instead the very perspective that sets Liu apart. This is her promise. When she retired at 16 and came back, she would do it her way. That includes manifesting magnitude where she sees fit. And it’s not on medals but on moments. On relationships. On being more satiated by happiness than winning.
Her formula allows her to perform with the confidence and reliability — and eliteness — that’s been absent from the U.S. contingent for most of these Games. Neither Malinin nor Glenn, two of the marquee names in the sport, could deliver their best on this biggest stage.
The profoundly talented Japanese skaters remain the obstacle in America’s way. In Liu’s way. Kaori Sakamoto, who won bronze at the 2022 Olympics, and Mone Chiba rank Nos. 1 and 2 in the world. Nakai came in ranked No. 13 in the world but skated like the best in her short program.
Liu has beaten the Japanese skaters in the last two major international competitions: the 2025 World Championships in Boston last March and the 2025 Grand Prix Final in December. She enters Thursday looking up at two of them — Sakamoto sits in second, 0.64 points ahead of Liu — and the third, Chiba, hunts Liu from behind in fourth.
“Whether I beat them or not is not my goal,” Liu said. “My goal is just to do my programs and share my story. I don’t need to, I guess, be over or under anyone to do that. … I don’t need a medal. I just need to be here, and I just need to present, and I need people to see what I do next.”
Liu’s previous Olympic experience proved rare on this iteration of Team USA. But her experience happened in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, which robbed the 2022 Beijing Games athletes of fans, of family, of Olympic warmth.
So not only does Liu know how the pressure of this stage feels, but she also knows what it’s like when it’s empty. When it’s isolated by quarantines and social distancing. When it’s lonely.
That’s why it mattered so much to see Selina, her younger sister, and the triplets, Julia, Joshua and Justin. Liu’s father, Arthur, had all five of his children through surrogates. They’re in school, and Liu couldn’t remember the last time they came to a meet, if ever.
But Milan drew them all. Family members. Her best friends.
“They feed into what I do,” she said, “and they’re the only reason why I’m here, you know, because they support me. And so genuinely, I can’t do it without them.”
This doesn’t distract Liu. Her story, her journey, taught her some things. Organized her priorities. Shaped her vision of these circumstances. The pressure of the task can’t hijack her sense of appreciation. The kind that comes from loving something, leaving it and getting it back again. It’s deep. It’s powerful. And, yes, emotional.
