In Liu of Superlatives

I'm a week behind on this, but better late then never.

As we head into a Winter Olympics year just 10 months away in 2026, the final figure skating World Championships before the Games were held in Boston on the weekend of March 29-30.  And for the first time ever, the United States won the Gold Medal in three of the four competitions.  Those winners were Alysa Liu for women, Ilia Malinin in the men’s competition, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates for ice dancing.

Malinin with his remarkable six quads, and a backflip thrown in for good measure, was a significant achievement.  And by "significant," I mean that he not only did six quads, he is the only skater in the world to do, in competition, even just one.  That said, he was not just the favorite, he was the defending world champion and undefeated this year, so it was largely anticipated.  That doesn't lessen the victory in the slightest.  In some ways, it highlights the Gold Medal for consistently succeeding, and here at the pinnacle, under pressure.

But for me, it's Alysa Liu who stood out.  That's because the 19-year has been retired for almost 2-1/2 years.  She got the Bronze Medal at the 2022 World Championships... but that was her last competition.  She barely skated much at all last year.  But in Boston a week ago, she returned to skating and gave a powerful and graceful freestyle program that looked full of ease, almost as if she was skating for fun.  And blew the home-ice crowd away, as it goes crazy throughout, building in electric excitement, and exploding at the end.  (And exploding the moment is her father, who came to the U.S. in the 1980s and raised five daughters as a single parent.)

In fact, before the skate is even over, if you look at the quick close-up filling the screen around the 3:50 mark, Liu's face is already glowing with joy.  And her reaction when the skate is over is one of almost disbelief.  Actually, no, there's really nothing "almost" about it -- the moment she finishes, you can easily read her lips, "Wow!" as she then skates around stunned, and then listen closely when she gets off the ice and is embraced by her coach and choreographer.  You'll hear her repeating the phrase -- "What the hell??...What the hell???

There's another great moment off the ice, as well.  You'll see a skater come rushing in and embracing Liu, and the two jump up-and-down in excitement.  But the thing to know is that this other skater is not one of her teammates, full of joy for one of her fellow Americans.  She's from the Japan team.  (As she walks away, you'll see "Japan" on the back of her uniform.)  And all the more notable is that she's not only from Team Japan, but she's Kaori Sakamoto -- who at the time was in first place, about to be passed by Alysa Liu.  Since she also hugs the coach and choreographer, clearly they're all friends, and perhaps even have trained or at least skated together.  But whatever the explanation, it's tremendous sportsmanship and friendship.

Here then is that pure fluid skate that Alysa Liu gives.  The best, she says afterwards in an interview -- still unbelieving that she was in competition to win, let alone won -- that she ever gave in her life.  

As a bonus, here is the short program she gave earlier in the competition that so unexpectedly vaulted her into first place at the end of the round.  It's not the rousing kind of skate as the freestyle -- the short program is more technical with required elements.  But it's even more graceful with the same sense of ease.  In at least part, I suspect, because at that point she had no expectation of contending, let alone winning the Gold Medal.  Though she does show much of the same "ease" later in the freestyle.

By the way, what the title of the video below refers to (since we don't see it here, though she discusses it at the interview at the end) is that before she took the ice, when backstage where she noticed there was a lot of empty space in the room -- she did a cartwheel!!  Why, she's asked, what's up with that?  "I love cartwheels."