How Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu fell back in love with the sport

A model of this story initially appeared on The Oaklandside on Could 15.

World velocity skating champion Alysa Liu glides effortlessly throughout the ice in all-black apparel accented with a turquoise waistband. With each pirouette she lands, her bangs and ponytail bounce alongside. Liu, who grew up within the East Bay, is with the Oakland Ice Centerher house base apply facility.

It is Could 2025 and the skater is simply getting began win gold through the ISU World Determine Skating Championships held in Boston in March. She is the primary feminine skater from the USo winning a world figure skating title since 2006 – the yr Liu was born – dethroning defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.

At that time, the Winter Olympics are nonetheless 9 months away – they begin this week, on February 6 – and Liu is beginning to skate once more sooner or later at a time. The world champion is concentrated on performing within the Stars on Ice tourthat made a cease on the SAP Heart in San Jose in Could.

Quickly, Liu is broadly anticipated to compete for Olympic gold. However on the day The Oaklandside visited the Oakland Ice Heart, Liu had simply flown house the night time earlier than, getting back from a whirlwind tour following her win, which included media engagement and throwing out the primary pitch (with double axle of course) throughout a St. Louis Cardinals sport.

Right now throughout coaching, Liu chooses the songs she desires to skate to. Just like the younger Gen-Z that she is, present music superstars function prominently on her playlist.

This morning’s music Blame it in your love by Charli XCX blasts out of the audio system. At first, Liu is the one one skating, whereas a handful of different skaters casually watch her coaching as they stroll by. Sooner or later somebody comes over to inform Liu what an ideal skater she is. “Thanks very a lot,” Liu solutions shyly.

Along with Charli

“The music I skate to relies on how I really feel,” says Liu. “This sport may be very creative and you progress higher when you may have music.”

Liu returns to skating on her personal phrases after a two-year hiatus. Her train routine is kind of relaxed in comparison with the grueling sessions she endured when she was younger. Lately she skates for about an hour within the morning after which runs errands or hangs out with mates. She comes again to the rink within the afternoon to skate for one more hour after which goes to the fitness center. “Then the remainder of the day is free actual property for me,” she says. “I do what I need.”

She has the critically acclaimed film Sinners throughout one in every of her latest outings.

“It was so good! It is one in every of my favourite motion pictures proper now,” she says.

Liu is stunned to be taught that the movie’s director, Ryan Coogler, was born and raised in Oakland.

“No approach! That is wonderful!” she says. “I like the idea of the film and the way it performed out. I like dancing, so the dance scene was my favourite.”

A 13 yr outdated champion

In 2019, Liu turned the youngest determine skating champion in American historical past on the age of 13 and was a rising star. In 2020, she received the US Championship once more. On the age of 16, after ending sixth on the 2022 Winter Olympics, decided to stop skating.

“Take a break so you determine what you need,” Liu says of what appeared like an abrupt determination. “Whenever you’re in your bubble you may’t see it, so it’s a must to take a step again to essentially work out what you wish to do.”

She now not discovered pleasure in sports activities. After a hiatus of greater than two years, Liu’s gold medal in March got here as a shock even to the determine skater herself.

Apart from burnout as an athlete, fixed apply and journey, Liu missed time at house together with her siblings. Liu is the eldest of 5 in a household of two sisters and two brothers, together with triplets.

“There’s a number of chaos, but it surely’s additionally a number of enjoyable to have brothers and sisters,” Liu says.

Liu was born in Clovis, California, and raised in Richmond, however she calls Oakland house. Throughout her skating break, she moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, the place she is at the moment on deferred standing.

She attended the Oakland College for the Arts for a semester in highschool, however switched to on-line training for the rest of her training attributable to her hectic coaching schedule.

“Wanting again, I want I did not have to do this,” Liu says. “However that was the choice that was made.”

Regardless of lacking out on the normal college atmosphere, Liu shaped shut friendships that proceed right this moment. Her finest buddy, Liu says, lives close to the Oakland Ice Heart.

“I am going to her home on a regular basis. A whole lot of my mates go to Berkeley too, so I hang around with them there,” Liu says. “We love mountaineering, Lake Temescal, the Berkeley Marina or Baker Seaside on the town.”

Whereas she loved her time as a typical teenager and faculty scholar, a ski journey in January 2024 reminded her of her love for skating.

“I went snowboarding, and your legs are drained, you are out of breath, you are chilly, and the chilly wind retains hitting you, and also you’re sliding down the mountain, and it is quite a bit like skating,” Liu says.

When she stopped skating, she found that snowboarding was the proper sport for her. However, she says, snowboarding is pricey and it is tough to get to the mountains.

“If anybody likes snowboarding, come to the rink, you will adore it,” she says. “So ultimately I simply got here again to the rink.”

Though she is now world champion, the return to the ice was not simple.

“It took about six months to get used to the skates,” says Liu. “My toes harm after each exercise.”

Liu says that though she wasn’t nice the primary few instances she stepped on the ice, it was enjoyable for her to skate once more.

“It did not matter that I wasn’t good as a result of I had that feeling of freedom,” she says.

Now that she’s again on the ice on her phrases, she desires mother and father of younger athletes to hearken to their youngsters after they want a break.

“For me, my stability is my social life, skating and college. I feel it is essential as a result of we’re people earlier than we develop into athletes,” says Liu. “I take it daily, as a result of for me it is a acutely aware determination to come back to the rink and skate. I am not connected to something, so I simply form of dwell in it and go along with it.”