Alysa Liu stunned the skating world when she retired at age 16. Here’s what she said about walking away.
WASHINGTON — Alysa Liu ended Team USA’s 24-year gold medal drought in women’s figure skating Thursday, delivering a career-best performance in the free skate to capture Olympic gold.
The 20-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area scored 226.79 points, the highest total of her career.
The medal marks the first U.S. women’s individual figure skating gold since Sarah Hughes in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Liu’s victory also caps a remarkable comeback after she stepped away from the sport following the 2022 Beijing Games.
Why did Alysa Liu retire in 2022?
Liu announced her retirement in April 2022 in an Instagram post.
“Heyyyyy so i’m here to announce that i am retiring from skating,” she wrote at the time. “I started skating when i was 5 so that’s about 11 years on the ice and it’s been an insane 11 years. a lot of good and a lot of bad but (you know) that’s just how it is.”
She had just finished sixth at the Beijing Olympics and won bronze at the 2022 World Figure Skating Championships. Liu later told NBC News that nonstop training since childhood took a toll.
“I started when I was 5, and I basically didn’t stop until 16, and I was homeschooled my whole life,” Liu said. “And I’m a very social person. I crave human connection.”
She said she often trained away from family and friends and felt she lacked control over aspects of her career.
“It was so rewarding,” Liu said of her time away. “I was finally able to hang out with my siblings, do stuff with them like a normal family, and attend my friends’ birthday parties. I felt so human for the first time.”