Budapest Trophy: Alysa Liu wins women's event after placing second in free skate
The USA skater struggled with landing full rotations on her jumps but rode her strong short program to the overall win.
Figure Skating
Alysa Liu marked her comeback to international figure skating by winning the Budapest Trophy on Sunday (13 October) despite some struggles with fully rotating her jumps in the women's free skate.
The USA skater is competing in her first season back after two years in retirement, having stepped away from the sport after the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
On Sunday, it was clear that the lack of recent competition experience has taken a toll on the 19-year-old's free skate. Competing to Donna Summer's "MacArthur Park Suite", Liu landed a clean opening triple flip, but slowly the rustiness began to show. First, she under-rotated a triple toe loop, before also being marked negatively on grade of execution by the judges on her triple loop.
Two separate parts of her triple Lutz–single Euler–triple Salchow combination were pinged, with her Lutz adjudged to be a quarter rotation short while the Salchow was downgraded.
She also landed her closing double Axel a quarter under, resulting in a free skate score of 123.94 – second behind Switzerland's 2023 European medallist Kimmy Repond (124.05).
Thanks to her top-scoring short program, however, Liu's total was still enough for the skater to take the title ahead of Repond with 192.77 points.
Budapest Trophy 2024, ISU Challenger Series: Women's singles – results, top 10
- Alysa Liu (USA) 192.77
- Kimmy Repond (SUI) 190.09
- Lorine Schild (FRA) 179.70
- Lindsay Thorngren (USA) 179.45
- Madeline Schizas (CAN) 175.71
- Julia Sauter (ROU) 157.75
- Katinka Anna Zsembery (HUN) 153.61
- Janna Jyrkinen (FIN) 152.34
- Niki Wories (NED) 148.98
- Kristina Isaev (GER) 142.29