American Alysa Liu wins gold in figure skating. It is the great reward for a courageous, rebellious path in life. With her attitude, the 20-year-old is likely to be a motivation and inspiration to many women.
She is considered rebellious, self-determined and unconventional. US figure skater Alysa Liu does not fit the typical image of a professional figure skater – neither on the ice nor off it. Neither visually nor artistically. But one thing is not debatable: their ability.
Less than two years after her comeback, the 20-year-old was crowned Olympic champion with a flawless free skate at the Winter Games in Italy. Liu improved from third to first place after the free program.
The Japanese Kaori Sakamoto came second ahead of her teammate Ami Nakai, who celebrated her Olympic debut at the age of 17. For Sakamoto, who won bronze four years ago, the appearance in Italy was a farewell to the Olympic stage. She ended her career after the season.
But Liu stole the show from the two Asian women. She is the first American Olympic women’s figure skating champion since Sarah Hughes in Salt Lake City in 2002. “It was so nice to see her joy, her light-heartedness. She showed her jumps with great confidence,” said two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt on ARD. “It was very good competition, not a fall festival like the men’s.”
In 2022, Liu surprisingly decided not to continue her career, which was always accompanied by her father. She felt controlled by others, forced into a corset and patronized. She lacked freedom and also disliked the generally accepted ideal of beauty in her sport. Eating disorders were not a sacrifice she would make. She was 16 years old at the time – and ended her career before it had even really begun.
It was equally surprising that she came back – albeit under her own conditions. “She came up to me in my office and said, ‘I have very important news: I want to skate again,'” her father, lawyer Arthur Liu, told the New York Times: “And then she told me that I wouldn’t be there at all anymore, that I wasn’t part of the team anymore.” With tears in his eyes, he added: “I have to be honest, that hurt.”
But his daughter had recognized what she needed: She wanted to decide for herself how and when she trained, wanted to have a say in the choice of music and the choice of her competition clothes. Since then, her father told the New York Times he realized that in order for Alysa to return to the sport, he would have to let her go.
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“I really couldn’t blame her for wanting to go her own way,” said Liu Sr., who came to the United States as a political refugee more than 35 years ago after organizing student protests during the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in China. “We are both very freedom-loving.”
So his daughter returned for the 2024/2025 season and became world champion straight away. With her courage and self-determination, she will serve as a role model and inspiration to many. In the still staid, conservative figure skating world, she is a colorful element amidst many ice dolls with her sometimes streaky, sometimes layered colored hair and facial piercings. She stands for modernity and emancipation and thus embodies the new generation.
From now on she does this as an Olympic champion. She aptly describes the fact that at the moment of her triumph she was first busy calming down the completely overwhelmed bronze medalist Ami Nakai before she was happy about her own title. Liu doesn’t want to take success or failure personally, and it is precisely this lack of doggedness that gives her wonderful lightness on the ice. Liu, who is visually reminiscent of the musician Billie Eilish, is above all having fun.
Amber Glenn improves to fifth place
At least that was the case on Thursday evening for the American champion Amber Glenn, who made a serious mistake in the short program and improved from 13th to fifth place with her wonderful free skate. Despite the third best freestyle, it wasn’t enough for a medal.
There was no runner for Germany, but an athlete born in Germany took part anyway. Julia Sauter, who competed for Romania, took 17th place. When she was 15 years old, she was removed from the squad in Germany because she couldn’t do two different triple jumps. In the freestyle she jumped a total of six triple jumps, four of which were different.
“I support our German runners, I live in Germany. I love our German couples and I cheer them on just as much, but for my career it is the country of Romania,” said Sauter, who was born in Baden-Württemberg.
