Gold, shine and pure joy: Alysa Liu enchants the audience at the Olympic figure skating freestyle. It crowns her return to competitive sport in an impressive way. Her life story is worthy of a film.
Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu wrote her most beautiful fairy tale herself. “I am a storyteller,” said the 20-year-old with a permanent smile after her sporting crown. Liu transformed the Olympic ice surface into her personal stage at the Winter Games in Italy and rewarded herself with gold for her courage to make a comeback.
But the medal wasn’t that important to the dazzling US star. “I hope that people don’t just read the headline: Oh, she won gold,” said Liu, who was fashionably dressed as the Golden Girl for her coup.
Liu dazzled the figure skating world in her striking and rebellious outfit, which included a sparkling gold sequined dress, her distinctive mouth piercing and platinum gold streaks in her dark brown hair. “I didn’t need this,” she said of the gold medal around her neck, adding, “But what I needed was the stage – and that’s what I got.”
Alysa Liu is the daughter of a Chinese refugee
Liu emphasized that her carefree nature was more important to her than the results. Rather, the daughter of a Chinese father who fled to the USA as an activist in the face of the violent suppression of the Chinese protest movement on Tian’anmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989, is more concerned with her life story. And it is actually special.
Arthur Liu, who was born in California, introduced his daughter to figure skating when she was five years old. It quickly becomes clear that Alysa is talented – more talented than others, more talented than everyone else. At the age of 13, Liu won her first national title in the adult division. She is also the first American woman in the history of the sport to perform a quadruple Lutz. She was already considered a US prodigy.
In the 2021/2022 season she will also start internationally: sixth at the Olympic Games in Beijing, third at the World Championships in Montpellier, France. It should only be a matter of time before she ascends to the figure skating throne. But then: an abrupt and completely surprising end to his career at the age of just 16.
Why did this happen? The otherwise very bright and open Liu has so far kept a low profile – even in the hours after her greatest sporting success. “I hope people take the time to read my story, even if it’s not fully published yet. One day it will be,” Liu announced, almost mysteriously. She doesn’t regret returning to the ice – this time without her father Arthur: “Oh my God. It was just right.”
And she did it her way, independent of all the constraints that are generally considered factors for success in figure skating. In a recent interview on CBS News, Liu said, “Nobody is going to let me go hungry or tell me what I can and can’t eat.”
With a near-perfect Olympic freestyle to the music of “MacArthur Park Suite” by Donna Summer, Liu moved from third place after the short program to first place, overtaking the two Japanese Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai, who won silver and bronze. Liu was almost more pleased with 17-year-old Nakai, who was the last athlete to run in the free skate as the leader after the short program, than with her own Olympic victory. After the points were awarded, both jumped like bouncy balls and hugged each other tightly.
Apart from that, the competitors in Liu’s energetic and weightless figure skating show were mostly supporting actresses. “I felt calm, happy and confident. I had fun the whole time. This experience is really great,” Liu said.
Without pressure, instead running with joy – that was apparently exactly the right recipe for success. Also from the perspective of her trainer Phillip DiGuglielmo. “I think if you enjoy doing something, you can excel at it. Of course there are things in the world that are hard for us and we still get value from them,” he said.
The coach is “one hundred percent” sure that Liu would not have been at these Winter Games if she had not resigned in the meantime. “I think she knows who she is, what she values in this world — her family, her friends, figure skating,” DiGuglielmo said, adding, “This break has helped her body and her mind.”
The daily newspaper “USA Today” described Liu as the “happiest figure skater in the world – and Olympic champion” after her fairytale gold coup. US broadcaster NBC expert and former figure skater Tara Lipinski wrote on Instagram that she had goosebumps. “Alysa, you were magical out there!”
A month and a half ago, Liu came in second at the US Championships, beaten by Amber Glenn, who came fifth at the Winter Games. However, Liu also wore a silver dress in the free skate at the national championships – as if she were guessing her placings. Even that fit into the Hollywood story.
pk/dpa
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