1. Alysa Liu was born on August 8,2005 and is an American figure skater.
90 Facts About Alysa Liu
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Alysa Liu is the 2025 World champion, 2022 World bronze medalist, 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy champion, 2021 Lombardia Trophy champion, and a two-time US national champion.
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Alysa Liu became the youngest-ever US women's national champion when she won her first title at age 13.
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Alysa Liu is the first woman to win two consecutive US titles since Ashley Wagner in 2012 and 2013.
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Alysa Liu is the first woman to win the junior and senior titles back-to-back since Mirai Nagasu in 2008.
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An accomplished jumper, Alysa Liu was the first American junior women's singles skater to successfully complete a triple Axel in international competition, the first American woman to land a quadruple jump, the first woman to complete both a quadruple jump and triple Axel in the same program, and the first woman to land a triple axel in combination with a triple toe loop in the short program.
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In 2019, Alysa Liu was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list.
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Alysa Liu was born on August 8,2005, in Clovis, California, the oldest child of Arthur Liu, an attorney who immigrated to the US from a small mountain village in Sichuan, China, in the 1990s at the age of 25.
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Alysa Liu is the oldest of five children; like her siblings, she was conceived through an anonymous egg donor and a surrogate mother.
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Alysa Liu was considered the frontrunner female recruitment prospect for China as a part of its "naturalization project" to recruit overseas athletes in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
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Alysa Liu began skating at age five when her father, a fan of Michelle Kwan, brought her to the Oakland Ice Center.
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Alysa Liu began taking group lessons with her first and childhood coach, Laura Lipetsky, a former figure skater who had trained under Frank Carroll, and quickly moved to individual sessions.
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Alysa Liu was first after the short program; her free skate included two triple Salchows, the first completed in combination with a double toe loop and earning her a "program-high 7.00 points".
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Alysa Liu was in first place after her short program with a 1.22 point lead.
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Alysa Liu fell to fourth place after the long program in which she landed two triple-triple combinations but did not earn sufficient program component scores to retain her narrow lead.
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Alysa Liu opened her season with a silver medal at the 2017 Asian Open Trophy in which she finished second to Japan's Mana Kawabe.
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Alysa Liu was the youngest skater to compete in the junior division at the 2018 US Championships in San Jose, California.
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Alysa Liu won the competition despite suffering from a cold and sore throat.
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Alysa Liu scored a season's best in the short program with an almost seven-point lead going into the free skate.
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Alysa Liu earned 120.33 points during her long program after landing two double Axels and seven triple jumps, which were all backloaded in the second half of the program.
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Alysa Liu was given extra points on all her jumps except for the triple flip-single loop-triple Salchow combination.
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Alysa Liu earned an overall score of 184.16 points, almost 18 more than silver medalist Pooja Kalyan, and the second highest-ever score on the junior level.
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Alysa Liu was sent to the 2018 International Challenge Cup instead, where she won the advanced novice silver medal behind Hana Yoshida of Japan.
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Alysa Liu won the gold, outscoring the silver medalist, Japan's Sara Honda, by over ten points.
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Alysa Liu landed a ratified triple Axel in the free skate, becoming the youngest skater in history to perform a clean triple Axel in competition and the fourth American female skater to do so following Tonya Harding, Kimmie Meissner, and Mirai Nagasu.
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Alysa Liu earned perfect scores, led the US team to first place overall, and was the first American female skater to successfully complete a quadruple Lutz in competition, although not at an ISU-recognized event.
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Alysa Liu made her international competition debut at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid in August 2019.
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Alysa Liu completed all her jumps, including three triples, completed three level-4 spins, and earned positive grades of execution for all seven elements.
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Alysa Liu became the first female skater to complete a quadruple jump and a triple Axel in the same program in a competition.
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Alysa Liu fell on her second triple Axel but successfully executed her following six triple jumps.
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Alysa Liu earned level-4 scores for her three spins and top marks for her step sequence, earning a 59.66 program component score.
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Alysa Liu won the event by 21.52 points over the silver medalist, South Korean Park Yeon-jeong.
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Alysa Liu came in fourth after the short program but came from behind to win the event.
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Alysa Liu doubled a planned triple loop, trailing by a little over four points going into the free skate.
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Alysa Liu ended her program with a triple flip and earned three level-4 spins.
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Alysa Liu earned a season's best score of 138.99 in the free skate and 203.10 overall.
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Alysa Liu placed first in the short program with a triple Axel-triple toe combination and 71.09 points, a little over a one-point lead.
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Alysa Liu told reporters afterward, "I think I should have only done one quad, but I really wanted to go for it just for the fun of it".
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Alysa Liu was age-ineligible to compete in international senior-level competitions but was named to the 2020 World Junior Championships team alongside Starr Andrews and Lindsay Thorngren.
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Alysa Liu came into her first World Junior Championships ranked third in the world among juniors; ultimately, she placed third, behind Valieva and Usacheva.
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Alysa Liu came in fourth after her short program; according to ESPN, she did not "skate nearly as well at the past two national championships", and lost points for an under-rotation and negative grade of execution, but she successfully completed a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination jump, earning 67.52 points.
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Alysa Liu under-rotated her opening triple Axel and fell on her quadruple Lutz but successfully landed a triple Axel and six more triple jumps and earned level-four spins and footwork.
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Alysa Liu stated that she would remain in Oakland, California, as well as begin working with Canadian coaches, Lori Nichol and Lee Barkell through video conferences and occasional travels to their base in Toronto, Canada.
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In October, Alysa Liu was invited to the 2020 Las Vegas Invitational, a domestic competition sponsored by US Figure Skating, as part of Team Johnny.
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Alysa Liu finished sixth individually, and the team finished second behind Team Tara.
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Alysa Liu was unable to compete at full strength during the event after a fall on her triple Axel in practice led to a right hip injury.
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Alysa Liu was able to recover after forgoing triple jumps for about a month.
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On December 11,2020, Alysa Liu announced the addition of former four-time US men's champion Jeremy Abbott to her coaching team.
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In January, Alysa Liu competed at the 2021 US Championships in Las Vegas.
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Alysa Liu said afterward that she has already resumed training one of her more difficult ultra-c elements, the triple Axel, as of December 2020 and will try to resume training the other difficult elements in preparation for the next season.
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Alysa Liu became the youngest female skater to land a triple Axel at the US Nationals, as well as the third female skater to do so, and the first female skater to do so during a short program at Nationals.
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Alysa Liu was the first female skater to complete three triple Axels in US competition.
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Alysa Liu scored 73.89 points in her short program, 2.71 points behind Tennell, the leader after the short program.
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Alysa Liu completed two consecutive triple Axels, including the first one in combination, during her long program and, out of the other six triples she completed, only the flip was downgraded.
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Alysa Liu began working with Italian choreographer and Olympic ice dancing competitor Massimo Scali, who is based in Oakland, on her skating skills and choreography at the end of 2019.
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Alysa Liu entered the 2020 US Championships as the favorite to defend her title.
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Alysa Liu placed second in the short program after turning out of her triple Axel attempt but successfully landed a triple flip and a triple Lutz-triple toe combination, as well as executing level-4 spins and footwork.
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Alysa Liu earned 75.40 points, a little over 3.50 points behind Bradie Tennell; she had a technical base value advantage of more than 16 points over both Tennell and Bell.
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Alysa Liu landed two triple Axels in the first 65 seconds of her program and then completed six more triple jumps.
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Alysa Liu competed in the fourth annual Peggy Fleming Trophy, an event for senior-level US figure skaters where skating elements are evaluated "from an artistic point of view".
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Alysa Liu came in second with a score of 118.61, behind Karen Chen.
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Alysa Liu cited the presence in the camp of elite Italian skaters Matteo Rizzo, Daniel Grassl and Gabriele Frangipani, in contrast with her Oakland training facility that lacked skaters who performed more difficult elements.
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Alysa Liu made her senior international debut at the Cranberry Cup, a Senior B competition at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, MA, on August 14 and 15,2021.
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Alysa Liu won the competition after coming in first in both the short and the free programs.
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Alysa Liu won the competition with a total score of 205.74, ahead of You Young of South Korea and US teammate, Mariah Bell.
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Team USA teammate Karen Chen unofficially earned the third spot at the 2021 World Figure Skating Championships in Stockholm, and Alysa Liu was sent to secure that earned spot.
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Alysa Liu placed first in both segments of the competition to take the gold medal and the first of six available Olympic places.
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Alysa Liu made her senior Grand Prix debut at the 2021 Skate Canada International, where she placed fourth in the short program segment.
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Two days after her fourth-place finish at the 2021 NHK Trophy, Alysa Liu's father decided to fire coaches Philip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, so that Alysa Liu could move to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and begin working with Christy Krall, Drew Meekins, and Viktor Pfeifer.
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At the 2022 US Championships in Nashville, Alysa Liu placed third in the short program, scoring 71.42 points despite falling on her triple Axel attempt.
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Alysa Liu was the youngest athlete named to the American Olympic team.
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Alysa Liu did not attempt a triple Axel in the segment.
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At the 2022 World Championships Alysa Liu was considered a podium contender in the much more open contest.
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Alysa Liu placed fifth in the short program with a clean skate.
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Alysa Liu underrotated the second part of a jump combination but landed six clean triple jumps and rose to third place, winning the bronze medal.
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Alysa Liu became the first American woman to medal at the World Championships since Ashley Wagner in 2016, and only the second since 2006.
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Alysa Liu decided to return to former coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali.
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Alysa Liu began working with coaches Amy Evidente and Ivan Dinev, who both work at Lakewood Ice.
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In October 2024, Alysa Liu competed at the 2024 CS Budapest Trophy, her first competition since March 2022.
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In early December, Alysa Liu competed at the 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where she won the gold medal.
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On March 2,2025, Alysa Liu took part in Legacy on Ice, an ice show organized by US Figure Skating that paid tribute to lives lost aboard American Eagle Flight 5342.
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On March 28 at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston, Alysa Liu won the gold medal, winning both the short and free programs.
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Alysa Liu dethroned three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, and became the first American woman to win the World title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
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Alysa Liu's victory marked a meteoric comeback after stepping away from the sport in 2022.
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Alysa Liu performed in the Sun Valley on Ice summer shows in 2019 and 2021.
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Alysa Liu was selected to be on the cover of the December 2019 edition of International Figure Skating Magazine.
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Alysa Liu was featured in several news and fashion magazines, such as Time, Sports Illustrated, and Elle.
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In 2019, Alysa Liu was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list that shines a light on the next generation of rising leaders.
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Alysa Liu attended Chinese school for three years and before transferring to Oakland School for the Arts which, at the time, offered a figure skating program.
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Alysa Liu graduated from high school in June 2021 at age 15.