Boston – It was once prophesied how Alysa Liu would make glory to the figure skating of American women.
At 13, she became the youngest woman to win the American championships in 2019. A prodigy was born. The sparkling girl of Oakland, California, with a talent larger than her setting and a smile quite warm to soften the ice, was on the way to the top. In 2020, before the world closed, she defended her American title. At 14, she was the future.
But at 15, she finished fourth in the American championships, having not succeeded in three peat. At 16, while displaying the inconvenient balance of her age, she finished sixth in the Beijing Winter Games dominated by the Russians. Then, following a bronze medal at the world championships, she announced her retirement in April 2022. Epléped in the pursuit of perfection, she declared her happiness, life outside the skates, was more important.
In less than three years later, now at 19, Liu realizes the allegedly she inspired. Friday, she won her first world championship, beating the drought of the 19 -year -old gold medal in America. After a retirement of more than two years of sport.
“I tried to tell him about it,” said Liu coach Phillip Diguglielmo. “No one has done that. No one is moving away and returns.”
But Liu returned even better. His excellence in the short program and the free skateboarding probably its name in the American contingency for the Winter Olympic Games in just under 11 months. American figure skating can take the three women he chooses for Milan, whatever they have finished in these worlds. But Liu punctuated his case with a demonstration of her maturation as a woman and skater.
To get out of retirement, climb to the brilliant stadium of the world championships and play as she did – so regularly and with a command that felt effortlessly – repositioning it as a candidate for the first American woman to win Olympic gold in single in 24 years.
“What devil?” What is Devil? What is Devil?
This is what Liu said who crosses his mind when it was over. Fate tends to feel surreal.
“I never have any expectations in competition,” she said. “This is more what I can put out in terms of performance, and I really met my expectations on this part today.”
The true essence of what was revealed to TD Garden lies in the way history has happened. The grand finale of female singles riveted the crowds with closed counters. Amber Glenn, the American favorite, opened the glove of grandeur with a declaration performance. It was a challenge of challenge. Having reminded the world that she is fatal with a fall in the short program on Wednesday, Glenn was determined in the free Friday skate to remind you how she can be on another world.
Glenn, on the 16th of 24 skaters, recovered as a force for the United States with a categorical rebound performance. It nailed its elements, delivered the intensity, going to the skater that dominated all year round. She marked a 138.00 on her free skating, passing her for first place at the time with a total score of 205.65.
Then, the triple world champion in reigning Kaori Sakamoto of Japan One-Emballue Glenn with a categorical declaration of his brilliance, after a disappointing performance in the short program. She dropped the house with “All that jazz” from Chicago, dressed in all black to adapt to the atmosphere of the popular musical. She zipped around the rink with the staging of a champion, landing the triples at the rate and feeding on the energy of the arena. And when she finished, she let everything out – with cries and handguns. It usurped Glenn at n ° 1. A new bar was fixed: 217.98.
Kaori Sakamoto of Japan (on the left) congratulates Alysa Liu for his victory Friday in women’s competition at the world craft skating championships. (Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)
American Isabeau Levito could not erase it. After having dazzled his short program, an astonishing revelation after a fracture of stress in his right foot prevented him from the American championships in January, his hopes of gold medal evaporated in the first minute of his free skate. She tumbled up her opening jump sequence. The rest of his routine was as clean as it is elegant. But the fall abandoned her from the gold medal, a reality which she recognized immediately after her routine with a look of disappointment. She finished fourth with a score of 209.84.
The hopes of America in his nation of origin fell in Liu. The last night skater.
She fueled them all. She had the moment because it was a dawn. After stunning in the short program on Wednesday, Liu left no doubt with his free skating, capturing her first gold medal in the world championship with a score of 222.97. Sakamoto, about five points behind, took the money. The Japanese Money Chiba has taken bronze.
The preparation of Liu only underlined the sense of present fate. It was a stories book. The signified vibrations caused goosebumps. She never felt this in all her previous years of skating.
“I really don’t think I wanted to do competitions before,” said Liu after her short program. “In addition to not wanting to do it, I was certainly not ready for competitions, in my opinion.”
Liu said that she had chosen music for her routine, “MacArthur Park” by Donna Summer, before she knows that the worlds were in Boston, and without knowing that Donna Summer was from the region. However, it was perfect enough to feel intentional, the way she landed a triple loop just when the tempo changed in the song. TD Garden appeared with the music, applauding with the tempo of the disco song from the late 1970s. Liu’s verve supported the signal.
“People were standing in the flying camel,” said Diguglielmo. “Why are you applauding with the flying camel? We have three other major jumps. And a step. And a choreo. And a turn. … You know, it’s not over until it is finished.”
At 19, Alysa Liu delivered the United States for its first world title in simple female from Kimmie Meissner in 2006 (Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)
When she struck the sequence of Triple Lutz-Double toelop Axel-Double, it was over. Because it was clear that she was in an area. Or, as Diguglielmo said, bringing together her best attempt at Jargon Tiktok, “she was in the Klurb.” Not an ounce of intimidation present.
Aside from a coach, something involvement was obvious. A freshness that denied the magnitude. His disposition was governed by joy and not by weight. The confluence of events put this young woman where she was to be, to do what she was born to do and be what she deserved to be. And she knows it because she chose this.
Such a resounding performance makes it impossible not to reconfigure the landscape of the hopes of the gold medal for the Milan Olympic Games. How could a prognosis not include the star in small groups that the world has just witnessed?
The 2025 world championships did not include the Russians, who dominate sport. We still do not know if they will be allowed to participate in Milan, although their absence of worlds does not seem promising. The nation has been prohibited from international competition since the invasion of Ukraine.
Time is therefore ripe for America to resume its inheritance of Olympic success. Liu illustrated his game for the challenge, giving the United States another hope next to Glenn. Levito, 18, also seemed largely worthy of a place.
A large part of the history of America in female figure skating was elite since Tenley Albright won the first Winter Olympic Games in the States in 1956. It was the first in a stretch of 13 Olympic cycles that saw the United States take gold in simple female seven times.
Since the victory of Albright, the United States has also obtained 11 other skaters winning money or bronze, the last being Sasha Cohen’s silver medal in 2006. During the 50-year-old Albright Gold section at Silver’s Silver, American women won 18 medals of simple. The only other country with more than three medals in this period is Germany, with six.
But it was a podium drought for the United States in simple female during the last four cycles of the Winter Olympic Games. Not in Levito’s life, an American woman was laid in the biggest sport event.
Liu enters the mixture as a viable candidate to end the drought. Talent has always been indisputable. She has the big scene experience, which presented herself under the ceiling of the championship banners at TD Garden. The peace she declares that she found far from the sport suggests that she is mentally prepared for the challenge. Why can’t she be the first American gold medalist since Sarah Hughes in 2002?
The beauty of what Liu has found is that he does not seem to have any importance if she wins Olympic gold. And this release is the reason why it cannot be counted by realizing it. It is free from the consequence of failure and, therefore, limits of limits.
This is how she patinated Friday. As a distant from Regret. Like that supplied by the zeal of authenticity. Like the one who found his goal, curiously, in the same place as she left to find him.
The crowd caught the contagion, applauding through his sequence of Pas by Massimo Scali, while Liu jumped and turned and threw her arms and made a smile that she could not simulate. Then, picking up the speed, she slipped on the ice on one knee, leaning far enough for her hair to sweep the ice.
This is how you slip on Destiny.
(Photo of Alysa Liu celebrating her victory in gold medal Friday at the world championships: Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)
