Budapest Trophy 2024: Alysa Liu leads women after short program
The US figure skater, competing in her comeback season after two years away, leads in Budapest by over two points after the short program.
Figure Skating
Looking at Alysa Liu competing on the ice at the ISU Challenger Series Budapest Trophy 2024 on Saturday (12 October), one might not have realised the US athlete took two years away from figure skating.
The Beijing 2022 Olympian retired after competing in the Chinese capital, aged 16, and announced her comeback in March this year.
Now 19, skating at the first international ISU competition since her return, Liu finds herself at the top of the standings after producing a strong short program at the Challenger Series event in Budapest, Hungary.
Skating to "Promise" by Laufey, the US figure skater opened with a triple flip, triple toe loop combination, but appeared to land the toe loop slightly under and was penalised by the judges on her grade of execution score for the element. She followed that with a clean double Axel and completed her jumps with a triple Lutz.
In addition to her strong technical score, Liu also received the highest program components score of all 20 skaters, at 31.66 points, for her artistry and performance.
Liu's total score of 68.83 put her more than two and a half points clear of teammate Lindsay Thorngren (66.19), while last year's European bronze medallist Kimmy Repond of Switzerland sits third with 66.04.
The women's free skate starts at 1:30pm local time on Sunday, 13 October.
Budapest Trophy 2024: Women's short program – Results, top 10
- Alysa Liu (USA) 68.83
- Lindsay Thorngren (USA) 66.19
- Kimmy Repond (SUI) 66.04
- Madeline Schizas (CAN) 65.21
- Lorine Schild (FRA) 63.48
- Julia Sauter (ROU) 62.98
- Janna Jyrkinen (FIN) 57.26
- Katinka Anna Zsembery (HUN) 53.74
- Regina Schermann (HUN) 51.59
- Kristina Isaev (GER) 47.31