By the time Alysa Liu reaches the end of her four-minute free skate, the energy inside the Milano Ice Skating Arena is unmistakable. With the final notes of Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park Suite echoing through the building, Alysa joyfully finishes her program, tossing a playful hair flip toward the camera. The crowd erupts. Seven triple jumps. Zero mistakes. The 20-year-old Team USA figure skater, clad in a shimmering gold dress, has just delivered the performance of her life. Moments later, the scores confirm it: Alysa has won Olympic gold, becoming the first U.S. woman in nearly a quarter century to claim the sport’s biggest prize.
For Alysa, the Milano Cortina victory is the culmination of one of figure skating’s most unexpected journeys. The youngest U.S. national champion at 13, she walked away from the sport as a teenager, drained by the pressures of elite competition. Yet nearly two years later, she returned with a different perspective: If she was going to skate again, it would be on her terms. Because she loved it. And if she won, it would be as herself — not as someone else’s version of what a champion should be.
That mindset has helped turn Alysa into one of the sport’s most intriguing athletes, someone who is redefining what winning can look like, whether that’s on her own social media feed or headlining in this spring’s nationwide Stars on Ice tour. Below, in her own words, she shares how she thinks about pressure, success and learning to trust her own path.
