Alysa Liu finishes Beijing 2022 with ITZY 'Loco' gala performance
After finishing seventh in the women's singles, American teenager Liu closed her first Winter Olympics by performing to ITZY's 'Loco' in the exhibition gala.
Figure Skating
It's been quite a fortnight for 16-year-old American figure skating star Alysa Liu, who completed her Beijing 2022 in exhibition gala.
Liu finished seventh on her Winter Olympic Games debut in the women’s singles competition won by Anna Shcherbakova, and subsequently received an invitation to the showpiece event on the final day of the Games.
The California-born skater took to the ice at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Sunday and performed to 'Loco' by K-pop stars ITZY.
The official video clip for Loco has been viewed more than 151 million times on YouTube, and Liu’s performance has gone viral among ITZY fans on other social media platforms including Instagram, on which ITZY has more than 15 million followers.
Skating with a broad smile on her face on Sunday, the teenager replicated dance moves from the film clip, sang along to the music and recreated specific hand actions and moves.
She finished with a fun fall sit spin and later posted on Instagram: "MY FAVORITE GALA PROGRAM IVE EVER DONE AND I GOT TO SKATE TO ITZY?!!?!! this is actually insane. this is such a great way to end the olympics!! i couldn’t be happier 😭"
Among others taking to the ice in the gala to close the figure skating programme at Beijing 2022 were newly-crowned Olympic champions Nathan Chen, Shcherbakova, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, and China's pairs gold medallists Sui Wenjing and Han Cong.
Two-time Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru, who finished fourth in Beijing, also performed and later hugged it out with the Games' mascot Bing Dwen Dwen.
For Liu, the youngest woman to win the U.S. senior national title when doing so aged 13 in 2018, it ended an enjoyable Games debut.
She said after her seventh in the women’s singles: "I'm really glad I went for everything. I'm glad I didn't fall!"
"I'm still in shock at how well I did. I worked a lot on this and I'm glad I did two clean programmes. I'm making a lot of memories here, and they're all really good ones."
After the short program on Tuesday, Liu spoke about body-shaming comments in the sport and took aim at people taking snipes at athletes.
"It is a really big issue in skating. I dealt with a lot of negativity two years ago," she said.
"It was hard, and then I learned to not care. I was like, 'Why are they literally coming at a 14-year-old? That's so weird.' But I found ways to deal with that. It doesn't happen to me as much anymore.
"If I read a comment that's body shaming you, I'm just like, 'OK, they're really weird.' So I'm just going to ignore them. It doesn't affect me."