Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

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Alysa Liu on top of the world, a startling position after two years away from skating

BOSTON — During her two-year retirement from figure skating, Alysa Liu joined four friends in May 2023 on a 40-mile trek to Mount Everest base camp, some 17,500 feet above sea level.

That was nothing compared to the trip Liu made Friday, climbing to the top of the world in her sport, a result that is one of the biggest surprise endings in figure skating’s long history. It seemed beyond the realm of comprehension even to Liu.

She did it by being unabashedly, completely herself, a 19-year-old who mixes adult maturity with teenage goofiness, as she did when asked by rinkside host Ashley Wagner how it felt to be world champion.

“Just, what the hell?” she told the sellout crowd at TD Garden, which had roared and stomped and clapped so loudly near the end of the program it drowned out the million-decibel Donna Summer music.

What the hell, indeed?

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Liu finds the joy — and the lead — at World Figure Skating Championships

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Liu finds the joy — and the lead — at World Figure Skating Championships

BOSTON – In her first figure skating career, the one she ended with a retirement three years ago at age 16, Alysa Liu won national titles, made history as the youngest this and the youngest that, did landmark jumps for a U.S. woman, competed in the Olympics and won a world championships bronze medal.

The way Liu describes all that now, it was a pretty joyless experience.

She didn’t like to practice. That meant she rarely went into a competition as prepared as she needed to be. That — and injuries — made her performances erratic.

“It was a job,” she said.

Her unexpected return this season, on her own terms, has been so enjoyable that Liu literally turned a cartwheel on the entry walkway before taking the ice for Wednesday afternoon’s short program at the 2025 World Championships.

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Amber Glenn, still learning to be a champion, wins another U.S. Figure Skating title

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Amber Glenn, still learning to be a champion, wins another U.S. Figure Skating title

WICHITA, Kansas – A year ago, when Amber Glenn won the national title but went on to finish an underwhelming 10th at the World Championships, her coach said in an interview that Glenn was still learning how to be a champion.

Glenn, who masks nothing of her emotions and frequent inner turmoil, appreciated coach Damon Allen’s honesty when she read the interview.

“Now I’ve kind of learned how to be a champion,” Glenn said.

In Friday’s free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Glenn showed the full resolve of one, fighting off back pain to rally from a disappointing third-place finish in the short program and win a second straight national title.

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Sarah Everhardt goes from scene stealer to spotlight at U.S. Figure Skating Champs

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Sarah Everhardt goes from scene stealer to spotlight at U.S. Figure Skating Champs

Sarah Everhardt’s expected role at last year’s Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships seemed to be like that of an extra on a movie set, there to fill out a scene … or, in this case, the field for a competition.

After all, it was Everhardt’s national debut at the senior level, and she had finished 13th and 11th at the junior level the previous seasons, and her results leading up to the 2024 event were unremarkable.

So who could have foreseen Everhardt turning into a bit of a scene stealer as she finished fourth overall and third in the free skate? She did it with two clean programs (no negative grades of execution) for the first time in her career, according to skatingscores.com.

“I know I have it in me,” Everhardt said via Zoom. “When I go to a competition, I know that I’m capable of skating clean, doing my best. So I always just try to use that confidence going in.”

After a solid international season this fall, with a first and second in two Challenger Series events, Everhardt goes into this week’s nationals in Wichita, Kansas as one of a half-dozen medal contenders in a competition that became even more wide open when reigning world silver medalist Isabeau Levito withdrew last week with a foot injury.

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How Alysa Liu rediscovered figure skating and came out of retirement

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How Alysa Liu rediscovered figure skating and came out of retirement

How did Alysa Liu get to this point, to where she is skating in this weekend’s Budapest Trophy in Hungary, her first real competition in two and a half years?

How and why did she return to the spotlight after purposefully retreating to the shadows, her break from being ALYSA LIU (drum roll) so complete that she also broke from social media, then began posting photos in which alysa liu (whisper) often turned her face from the camera or made it indistinct.

At age 13, Liu had stood the figure skating world on its head. At 16, soon after skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics and winning a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, Liu retired from the sport.

She did some post-Olympic shows and did not skate at all for nearly a year and a half. At 19, a sophomore at UCLA, she is competing again.

Talk about things turning upside down.

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