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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Elyce Lin-Gracey, whose skating has Olympian roots, takes breakout season to Skate America

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Elyce Lin-Gracey, whose skating has Olympian roots, takes breakout season to Skate America

Elyce Lin-Gracey’s skating career began with a persistence that impressed her mother.

The first time Rhoda Lin brought her daughter to an ice rink, the 4-year-old girl took the ice and fell. Then got up and fell again. Got up, fell again. Got up and ... well, you get the idea.

The one thing she didn’t do was give up.

“Wow,” Lin remembers herself thinking, “maybe this is something she could do. So, we started some lessons, and she grasped some skills pretty easily and would keep plugging away at those skills she found more difficult. She kept going and going and kind of became what she is.”

Lin-Gracey is, at age 17, one of the sport’s biggest surprises early in this season, the first she has begun as a senior-level international competitor. She makes her senior Grand Prix debut this week at Skate America in Allen, Texas.

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Isabeau Levito delivers for her psyche, U.S. figure skating with world champs silver medal

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Isabeau Levito delivers for her psyche, U.S. figure skating with world champs silver medal

MONTREAL — Isabeau Levito’s first world championships medal could not have come at a better time for herself and for U.S. figure skating.

When she took the ice Friday night, Levito needed to win a medal to give the U.S. women a third spot at the 2025 World Championships in Boston.

And, after getting second in Wednesday’s short program, a medal would be the perfect way to rebuild Levito’s recently shaken confidence.

“I had two goals for this world championships, getting on the podium and securing the third spot for the American women,” she said. “I did both. It was extremely satisfying.”

It made no difference that she was a distant second to Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who became the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since Peggy Fleming of the U.S. in 1966 through 1968.

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