World figure skating champion Alyssa Liu will represent US at 2026 Milano Olympics

The final skater of the 2025 World Championships, Alysa Liu glided across the ice with full of confidence and calm as ever as the first beat of music played. When she went into her opening jump, she knew that “the rest of the program would be fine.” As she skates towards her final jump, feeling the crowd’s energy, she realized that she had done it. “That’s when I kind of let myself be more free and just dance and have fun.” she said finishing off strong enjoying in all the hype. 

American figure skater, Alysa Liu the youngest US national champion at 13 years old, who quit competitive skating at the age of 16, who came back stronger than ever to claim the World Championships title in Boston 2025. Now she is setting her mind towards the 2026 Milano Olympics. 

Alysa Liu is a figure skater who is known for her high difficulty jumps. When she claimed the title of the 2025 World Champion, she also became the first woman to win in her home country in over two decades. 

Her signature move is the triple axel. When she became the youngest U.S. national champion at the age of 13 years old, she did it with three triple axels in her short and long program combined. Only around twenty women have ever landed a triple axel in competitions, and Liu has landed three in one competition. The triple axel is considered one of the hardest elements to execute in the women’s figure skating category. This is because the jump takes off forwards and is half a rotation more than any other triple jump. This made her the youngest figure skater to have ever landed a triple axel. She is the second women to successfully land three triple axels in a competition after the Japanese Olympic skater Mao Asada during the 2010 Vancouver winter games. Including Alysa, only 27 women ever landed a triple axel.  

As the Olympic season begins ahead of the 2026 Milano Olympics in Italy, Alysa is preparing her short program to a song called “Promise” by Laufey, the crowds favorite from last season and her “McArthur Park” free program solo by Richard Harris. 

In the recent China Grand Prix competition in late October 2025, she showcased these programs receiving a silver medal. After her short program, Alysa placed first. Although in her free skate program, she stumbled on her landing on the triple lutz jump which made her late to her music. She wound up in second place, securing her first ever podium finish in a senior grand prix competition. 

Despite her unexpected retirement, at the beginning of March last year, Liu announced her return to the sport.  During an interview with a former Olympian on the Olympics podcast after her gold medal win in the World Championships, she said that getting back into competitive form was difficult. “I didn’t have stamina, and my jumps were all just really sloppy,” she said. “It was actually harder to come back than it was to leave.” 

Even with her incredible talent, Liu only qualified to compete in the junior categories internationally because she was only able to compete when she turned 16, so after a brilliant skate at her first international skating union world championship in the 2022 competing  in a new category as a senior skater, taking home a bronze medal, Liu announced on social media “I’m finally done with my goals in skating, I’m going to be moving on with my life.” as she decided to leave the competitive sport to focus on her education and to spend time with her friends and family. At the early age of 16, she retired from competitive figure skating, which left the skating community in shock, as she was a role model to many of the young figure skaters. 

Liu began skating at the age of five. She and her father were big fans of the two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan and were inspired to start her journey. Her father Arthur Liu decided to put Alysa into skating lessons at the Oakland ice rink. She improved in a quick time span, moving from group lessons to private lessons for the higher-level skaters. At the age of 10 years old she was already doing clean double jumps, and attempting her double axels, and at the age of 12 attempting triple axels and just a year later doing quad Lutz jump. These two jumps are considered ultra-C elements; the highest jump element you can attempt. As of now, Liu is practicing her ultra-C element, hoping to put it into her programs for coming up competitions.  

She hopes to skate until the Olympics, as she said during an Interview with the Men’s world champion Ilia Malinin on Today show on the national broadcasting company news. “I’ll be skating until the Olympics for sure.” She said “And I am very excited about it. I really do want to go”   

Cover Image: Access Hollywood