Beyond the Olympic Medals: Alysa Liu’s Story

Tiffany Sun

March 6, 2026

Sitting at the edge of my seat, stock still, my eyes are tethered to the screen as Alysa Liu skates to “Promise” by Laufey in the 2025 Winter Olympics Women’s Short Program. With her hair pinned up and white figure skating dress billowing while she executes a clean triple flip, Alysa Liu is the definition of elegance and carefree grace. Arcing across the rink and spinning through the air, with slow, musical movements, her gold ring of dyed hair was like an angel’s halo.

What makes her performance all the more memorable is Liu’s backstory. Starting when she was 5 years old, she was put on the ice. From then on, her journey was far from smooth—yet incredibly human.

At the mere age of 12, Liu was flying across oceans to compete in international competitions. She became the youngest skater to land a triple axel in international competition, and at age 16, Liu became the youngest woman ever to win the US Championships, beating adult skaters far older and more experienced than her. It’s no overstatement to say her skating career has been record-breaking for women’s figure skating.

Yet only a few months after attending the 2022 Beijing Olympics as a 16-year-old, she retired. She shared how she had lost her love for figure skating—despised how it consumed her life and chained her down. A girl so young was never meant to bear the weight of so many medals.

Burnt out, Liu instead turned her life toward enjoying time with friends, going to college, and hiking. Not only did she explore life, but it also became a time of self-discovery, as she figures out who she is and who she wants to become (sometimes we forget that such successful young people are as human as we are, and don’t have everything figured out).

But figure skating was always her calling, even if it once felt like shackles for her younger self. 18 months after her retirement, Liu returned to the ice—but this time, on her own terms. Instead of fixating on competition, she skated for the love of it, determined to showcase her art. As the world starts to connect her backstory with the lyrics of Laufey’s song “Promise,” Liu’s short program takes on a whole new depth of meaning.

At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Liu came back as if she never took a day off—but now with a spark returned to her eyes. The well-deserved break showed through in her skating, as she went on to create refreshing and creative performances, leaving the Olympics with 2 gold medals.

Alysa Liu’s backstory is a timely one, incredibly relatable to so many young people of this generation, who are grappling to figure out who they are while running in the rat race of life. Liu’s story shows the power and necessity of taking breaks, and it validates the very real effects of burnout.