After a whirlwind season leading up to her first Olympic appearance in February, Alysa Liu will finally make her much-anticipated Worlds debut at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2022 in Montpellier, France.
The 16-year-old and two-time U.S. champion already has a bronze medal from the 2020 World Junior Championships under her belt, and Olympic experience to boot.
Now that she's age-eligible, Liu is ready to take on the field in France. The women's event takes place on March 23 (short program) and March 25 (free skate).
The season so far has been full of firsts for Liu, including a debut on the senior Grand Prix circuit, where she finished fifth and fourth at Skate Canada International and NHK Trophy in Japan, respectively. She also won two Challenger Series events at Lombardia Trophy and Nebelhorn Trophy; the latter locked in a third quota spot for the U.S. women at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
Amid all of that, she underwent two coaching changes in the past two years.
Then in January, at the 2022 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Liu tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew from the competition. She had finished third in the short program.
Nevertheless, Liu was named to her first Olympic Team alongside U.S. champion Mariah Bell, and 2018 Olympian Karen Chen.
In all capital letters, Liu expressed her joy on Instagram: "I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST ACCOMPLISHED MY GOAL/DREAM OF MAKING IT ON THE OLYMPIC TEAM !! GUESS THAT TRAINING PAID OFF," she wrote in part.
Despite being the youngest member of Team USA across all sports at the Games, Liu lead the U.S. women's contingent, skating to eighth place after the short program and rising to finish seventh overall after the free skate.
"Oh my god, I'm so happy with two clean programs," said Liu after the competition in Beijing wrapped. "It's better than I ever thought I would do at the Olympics, and I'm really happy about it. I honestly just wanted to do two clean programs, and I can believe it—but I can't believe I actually did two clean programs. Like, I can, because I trained so much, but like, I can't. Everything has been really crazy."
At the exhibition event, where Liu was unexpectedly invited, Liu performed her "favorite gala program" she's ever done, she wrote on Instagram. Prior to the event, she didn't have a program prepared or a costume. She wore a costume from Spanish ice dancer Olivia Smart, and had her hair and makeup done by Madison Chock and Madison Hubbell, respectively. Jean-Luc Baker choreographed the program.
"This is such a great way to end the Olympics! I couldn't be happier," she said afterward.
In seemingly every media opportunity, Liu took the chance to describe the fun times she was having at the Olympic Village with all her friends, naming-dropping skaters like including Yelim Kim (South Korea), Wakaba Higuchi (Japan), Young You (South Korea), Mana Kawabe (Japan), Loena Hendrickx (Belgium), Ekaterina Kurakova (Poland) and Bell.
"Me and my friends, we all did well," she said. "I got to go around the Village with them, eat with them before competition even started. It was already fun – and then we all did really good programs! And we get to hang out after. I can't believe how fun it is here. We all did really good. I'm really happy… It exceeded my expectations."