BOSTON — Alysa Liu let out a shocked smile Friday night, as the crowd at TD Garden roared and the stuffed animals began to rain down on the ice.
Liu became the first American woman in nearly two decades to win a world figure skating title Friday, clinching history with a brilliant, poised performance to the music of Boston-born disco artist Donna Summer. After winning the short program portion of the women’s singles competition earlier this week, she won the free skate, too − sealing her place atop the podium with the final performance of the night.
Liu, 19, leapfrogged three-time defending world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan to win the gold with a total score of 222.97. Mone Chiba, who is also from Japan, took bronze, while Americans Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
When asked if she expected to be a world champion when she returned to competition last year, Liu laughed. No. No she did not.
‘Even yesterday, I didn’t expect this,’ she said.
It’s the first time an American woman has topped the world championship podium since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
It’s not all that surprising that Liu made it here, to the pinnacle of her sport. It’s more the path that she took to get here − a winding, complicated journey that is all her own.
Liu started skating at 5 years old at a rink near her Richmond, California home, and it didn’t take long for her potential to be recognized. By the time she turned 9, according to NBC Sports, she was waking up at 4:30 a.m. for private training sessions. By 12, she was landing a triple axel − the most difficult jump in women’s figure skating − in competition. And by 13, she was already a national champion at the senior level.
In a sport that is constantly looking for ‘the next big thing,’ Liu certainly appeared to be it.
After competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she was the youngest member of Team USA at 16, Liu proceeded to place third at the world championships. But with some of her main goals in skating behind her, she began to think about the other things she wanted from her life. In April of that year, Liu announced on Instagram that she was retiring from the sport and ‘moving on with my life.’
‘I really let the problems get to me a little bit more than now,’ Liu told Olympics.com, when asked about that 2021-22 season. ‘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.’
After more than a year away, that full picture of skating started to prompt questions. Could she still do a triple jump? Could she run a program? Above all else: Did she want to do all of those things?
Last spring, Liu reached out to Phillip DiGuglielmo, who had coached her off and on since she was a kid. She told him she wanted to come back to competition. He said he poured a glass of wine and tried to talk her out of it.
‘I said, ‘Nobody’s done this. Nobody walks away and comes back,’ ‘ DiGuglielmo recalled. ‘Rachael Flatt tried. Gracie Gold tried. Lots of people try, because they love it. And that’s great. They’re not successful at it.
‘She just listed off all these reasons about why she could do it.’
So they got back to work, albeit with a different approach and, from Liu’s point of view, a new mindset. She felt empowered by her time away from figure skating, free of the ‘prodigy’ label, expectations and rigidity. If she wanted to do a morning practice session, she did. If she didn’t feel up to it, or overslept, then oh well. So it goes.
‘I have a lot of freedom,’ she said Tuesday. ‘You know how we hire the coaches? I really do feel like I’m kind of the boss of the coaches, which is weird. Because normally it’s the other way around, the coaches bossed you.’
‘It feels like there’s really no pressure,’ she added. ‘Like, I could just walk away if I wanted to. But for now, I don’t want to. So, yeah.’
In the pressure-packed environment at worlds this week, it was telling that Liu did a cartwheel before stepping onto the ice.
No American skater smiled more during the 2022 Olympics than Liu, who finished sixth but seemed most excited about the peach juice and souvenir options available in the Olympic village. She now seems even happier still.
‘ feel like her cheerfulness, her kindness and the way she’s always so happy brought her to this position on top of the podium,’ Sakamoto said through a translator. ‘In fact, if I would say something has changed, it’d be that she’s more bright, she’s more happy now.’
When asked about her journey at multiple points this week, Liu has made one thing clear: She has no regrets. About her youth career. About her decision to retire. And certainly not about her choice to return.
‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t decide to retire for a little bit,’ she said Wednesday. ‘So I just am glad that I listen to myself and do whatever. Because it just works out in the end.’
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.
This story has been updated with a new photo and to fix a typo.