Alysa Liu is playing the long game - and loving every minute: "I have to rebuild myself"
The 19-year-old American spoke to Olympics.com after her first Grand Prix event in three years. She said she isn't worried about placement this year, and has her sights set on the 2026 Olympics.
Figure Skating
An Olympian, former world medallist and two-time national figure skating champion, Alysa Liu says she's not worried about placement this season, a season in which she's made a return to the sport after some two years spent in retirement.
But don't get the now-19-year-old American wrong: She's as competitive as ever.
"I think making the U.S. Olympic team is going to be very challenging, especially coming back," she told Olympics.com in a sit-down interview last month at Skate Canada International. "I have to rebuild myself. But I like the challenge.
She continues: "Honestly, more than the placement, it's the motivation to keep training as hard as possible and whatever feeds that; it just gives me it gives me willpower. And I like having the fight in me; it makes me feel alive. ... So I think the competitions - and even the failures - push me to continue growing and working harder."
Liu was sixth at Skate Canada, her first Grand Prix since 2021. The UCLA sophomore was undeterred by the number next to her name at the end of the weekend. She's in it for the process, yet doesn't shy away from the Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 being her stated end goal.
"I think this time around, I really hope people can see I've fully immersed myself in the entire process," Liu said of her journey back to the ice. "I'm more embodying of what a skater should be [and] I feel more like a skater out on the ice. ... I hope others can enjoy my programs and my costumes, hair, music selection; I hope they can enjoy my skating as much as I am enjoying what I'm putting out."
Sakamoto Kaori on Alysa Liu: "I am very glad she's back"
One person who is no doubt enjoying Liu's skating is three-time and reigning world champion Sakamoto Kaori, who competed alongside her fellow 2022 world medallist in Halifax - and sat next to Liu at the short program press conference, with the American in second place after that segment.
"I am very, very glad that she's back," the Japanese star said via an interpreter. "I think that it's very difficult to perform under a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations and I understand that she left.
She added: "She must have really loved figure skating and that's why she's back. And I'm really so happy that she put into action her love of the sport."
Liu, sitting next to Sakamoto as she spoke, was visibly moved.
"It meant a lot; I love Kaori," she told Olympics.com. "She's just a really lovely person and - as a competitor - that's the type of person you want to be competing against. Yeah, I'm so grateful she said all those nice things and I'm glad she's glad I'm back."
Liu is tapping into something that Sakamoto, now 24, has been open in discussing: Seeing life beyind the competitive rink can help you on it.
"I really let the problems get to me a little bit more than now," Liu said of herself leading up to Beijing 2022. "I don't think I was able to process much of it as I was in it. But once I left, I really could see the full picture. And coming back now, I have a new perspective just because I got to get out of it... and it's totally changed how I view skating.
"And that's why it feels so different now and also why I really love it compared to before."
Liu soaking in skating's true meaning to her
When Liu is handed a photo of herself from the 2019 U.S. Championships - where she became the youngest national champion in history at age 13 - she says that that Alysa would have a hard time understanding the path the present-day version of herself has taken.
"I was in my own little world for sure," Liu said, staring at the picture. "Well, first of all, I would not recognize myself. I'd be like, 'Who is that?' ... I don't know what I would say to myself. I don't even think I would really appreciate my style [now]. I'd be like, 'You quit and then you came back?' I'd be really confused about that."
But the current Liu has an aura steeped in confidence: "I feel like I'm doing everything for myself and it makes me better as a skater," she said at the outset of our interview.
"So hopefully it comes through that way."
She continues to be thankful of her two-plus years away from competitive skating, and says she revels in overseeing her own schedule, including drives to the rink where "I blast the music" in the car, she admitted.
"Getting to experience something outside of skating honestly helped me come back into it," she said. "I really got to find myself. And that brought a lot of peace and it really benefited my mentality. I just have a lot more life experience."
Liu said she remembers being scared of growing up; now she appears to soaking it in - all of it.
"Being an adult was really scary for me because I just wanted to be a kid forever, you know?" she said. "But I really enjoy making my own decisions. ... It's so different. I think that's also why coming back, I feel more light and less stressed out.
"I feel like a completely new person."
DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Alysa Liu competes in the championship ladies short program during the 2019 Geico U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Little Caesars Arena on January 24, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)