Two U.S. titles. A bronze medal at the World Championships and World Junior Championships. A seventh-place finish at the Olympics. Successful triple Axels and quadruple jumps. Media attention and late-night television appearances.
Really, what was left for Alysa Liu to accomplish in the sport of figure skating?
"In skating I had two goals," said Liu, who at 16 years old announced her retirement from the competitive skating on Instagram on April 9. "They were, one, to compete at the Olympics, and two, to have fun with my skating friends and everybody else and to have a good time during my journey as a skater. Those were the only two goals I had and once I met them, this year, I decided there was nothing else I wanted to do in skating."
Liu admitted that if it had taken her another quadrennial to complete those goals, she would have stayed in the sport longer. The combination of the grind of training, stress of competition, and time spent away from family and friends was taking its toll, she said. The decision to end her career now gives her back some of her teenage years before they pass her by.
"What I'm trying to say is, now that I'm done, I can have more time to see my friends and family, which is honestly what I want more than anything right now," she said. "I think I choose my friends and family over skating. At the same time, I feel like I did everything I wanted to do in skating. It feels not like a sacrifice – but more like I'm graduating."
Liu remains unbothered by the surprise that her retirement elicited in the community.
"Honestly, I didn't really expect any reaction because I didn't really care," she said of the response to her announcement. "I felt like I had nothing to worry about any more now that I'm done. I felt like once I retired, I wouldn't care anymore. I don't really know what too many people are saying about it, but I kind of like it that way."
Liu admitted that she knew she wanted to retire after finishing seventh at the Olympics in February, but decided to participate in the World Championships in Montpelier, France, in March.
"I was skating really emotionally because it was my last competition," she said, adding that she didn't expect to skate well due to the heightened emotions. "It was definitely a little strange."
Liu sat fifth after the short program, but only 0.17 points out of fourth place. Her short opened with a double Axel, and her other jumping passes included a triple flip and a triple Lutz-triple toe combination in the second half of the program. When leaving the ice, the tears she cried were happy tears, she said at the time.
In the free skate, ultimately her final competitive performance, Liu opened with a downgraded triple Axel, followed by a triple loop, triple flip, and double Axel solo jumps. She received a downgrade for her triple Lutz-triple toe combination, but rounded out the program with a triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow and a triple flip-double toe. All three sequences received a second-half ten-percent bonus added to her score, which vaulted her into third place.
Liu's performance in her first and only appearance at a senior-level World Championship landed her on the podium with a bronze medal, the first for an American woman since Ashley Wagner's silver in 2016.
After receiving her scores and her medal, she said she was speechless and in shock.
The bronze added to her already impressive medal count, which includes a bronze at the World Junior Championships in 2020, a silver from the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final, and the 2019 and 2020 U.S. Championship titles.
While the door is closed for Liu on a competitive return – "I don't think I will return to competitive skating," she said – she will continue to skate this spring in shows.
"Stars on Ice is really fun to do," she said. "I think this year, I'm going to continue doing some ice shows. I'm still not sure about next year and the years to come."
Just because Liu is finished skating doesn't mean she won't have plenty of activities to fill her time, though, she said.
"I plan to get my driver's license – I still need to do that," she said, as if to emphasize to anyone who has forgotten just how young she still is despite spending several deserved seasons in the spotlight.
Liu has also begun her college application process and plans to attend in the fall of 2023. (She finished high school in June 2021 at age 15.) She said the application process is going well, but there's no need to rush any decisions at this point.
"I play the piano, so I'm going to get more into it," she said when asked about other pursuits. "Because of skating, I couldn't play as much, so I'm going to pick it up again."
Liu also plans to spend more time with her friends and family. Some friends, she said, she saw for what is likely the last time at the World Championships. Many of them knew of her decision to retire in advance, but otherwise Liu kept the news to herself.
"I'm really close with some of them," she said of her skating friends, who she was able to spend time with at the Olympics, too. "I wanted them to do really well, too, just because they're my friends and you want your friends to have success. It was really nice that we all did well [at the Games]."
At the Olympics, Liu remembered promising herself that she would have fun with that same group.
"Normally, no one really hangs out before competition because everyone's stressed about it," Liu said, adding that she vowed not to hole herself up in her room throughout the duration of her time at the Olympics. "This time, a lot of us hung out together beforehand just because the Olympics was so special. We wanted to make the most out of it. That was really fun. Being with my friends and them doing well, too, that was like the best moment ever."
