Olympic champion Alysa Liu will sit out the 2026-27 figure skating season, taking another break from competition while continuing to train ahead of a planned return the following year.
The 21-year-old American announced her decision on social media, saying she wanted time to “recalibrate” and develop her skating away from the demands of competition.
“I always want to challenge myself in new ways, so my artistry and skating can evolve,” Liu wrote. “It’s important to me that my sport reflects my personal growth.”
Liu told NBC Sports that she intends to continue working with her longtime Bay Area coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, with an emphasis on her “overall artistry, spins, jumps, everything”.
“I really want to improve my skating, and I wanted to take the time to do that for myself and just to evolve,” she said. “And then I’ll be back after that is done.”
The decision represents another unconventional turn in a career that has carried Liu from child prodigy to burnout, retirement and an unlikely return as world and Olympic champion.
Liu became the youngest ever US women’s champion aged 13, when her 4ft 6in frame left her too short to reach the top of the podium without help from the other medalists. But the relentless training and attention that accompanied her rapid ascent gradually drained her enthusiasm for the sport.
She retired at 16, only months after finishing sixth in her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games, and later described how comprehensively she had come to reject the life built around her skating.
“I really hated skating when I quit,” Liu said in the run-up to the Milano Cortina Olympics. “I didn’t care about competitions. I didn’t care about places. I didn’t care about skaters. I didn’t care about my programs. I just wanted to get away.”
Liu enrolled at UCLA, studied psychology and went hiking in the Himalayas with friends while discovering an identity beyond the rink. Her desire to skate returned unexpectedly during a ski trip to Lake Tahoe, where gliding down the mountain rekindled her love of movement.
She began skating once a week at public sessions in El Segundo, California, and found that the difficult jumps that had propelled her childhood rise had not entirely deserted her. Liu eventually decided to mount a comeback, but only with greater control over her career, including her music, costumes, diet and training schedule.
The results would no longer define the experience, she insisted. Her initial ambition was simply to make another Olympic team and use the sport as a form of self-expression.
That approach carried Liu to a surprise world championship in 2025, making her the first American woman to win the title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006. In February, she landed seven clean triple jumps to rise from third place after the short program and win the Olympic women’s singles title in Milan.
The West Oakland native became the first American woman to claim the event since Sarah Hughes in 2002. She also won gold in the Olympic team competition.
“Really the only word that comes to mind when I think about my entire journey is grateful,” Liu told NBC Sports. “I think the reason why it’s been so fun is because I have my own agency. I really like to skate, and so that’s why I skate.”
Liu said she assessed her emotional and physical state earlier this summer and concluded that stepping away was the right choice. DiGuglielmo and Scali supported the decision.
“Logically and emotionally and physically, this just makes the most sense,” she told NBC Sports. “I will miss seeing the international competitors at all the international competitions, but there will be more, so it’s fine.”
A rush of opportunities followed Liu’s Olympic victory. Nearly 5,000 people turned out for a homecoming celebration in her honor, where Oakland mayor Barbara Lee presented her with a key to the city. She withdrew from the world championships in March, performed alongside her Olympic teammates on the Stars on Ice tour, attended Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week show and wore the label to the Met Gala.
Liu had been scheduled to compete at Skate America from 13-15 November in Everett, Washington.
