© Geoff Burke/Imagn
Team USA’s best hopes of a medal in women’s figure skating at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina sit with 20-year-old Alysa Liu. But in 2022, it looked like the California native’s career was already over.
After winning two national championships as a teenage in 2019 and 2020, Liu qualified for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing at just 16 years old. She finished seventh in that event, before earning a bronze medal later that year at the World Championships in Montpellier, France.
Then, she walked away…
Tired of the sport that had consumed her entire life up until that point, Liu opted for a different path. She wanted to spend time with friends and be a normal teenager.
That decision ultimately saved Liu’s career and has her in position for a potential Olympic medal this time around.
Alysa Liu Needed A Breath Of Fresh Air
As she told CNN‘s Dana O’Neil, stepping away from skating was a difficult, but necessary decision for the now 20-year-old.
“I thought the only way for me to try other things was to leave this because I really felt trapped and stuck, and the only way in my brain to break out was to leave the sport,’’ Liu said. “And it worked.”
So, what did Liu do during her time off?
She turned to video games. She did karaoke with her brother and friends, she contemplated reincarnation while hiking through the Himalayas, and she took care of her cats, who have become famous during these games.
alysa’s cats were watching her free skate i’m gonna cry pic.twitter.com/wqU00nsGrw
— layla noor ♡ (@bylaylanoor) February 17, 2026
Ultimately, all of that led Liu back to where she felt she belonged: on the ice. But she returns with a new attitude and a new approach to skating.
“This is definitely an art form,’’ she said. “It satisfies me on the technical side, like spins and jumps and running the programs itself. Those are really hard, and I like being an athlete. But then this sport, it’s also artistic.”
Maybe Liu ends up with a medal on Thursday evening. Maybe not. But her journey back to figure skating is one that will likely affect her life in every facet moving forward.