Alysa Liu delivered a performance for the ages on Friday night at the World Figure Skating Championships at Boston’s TD Garden. She won the women’s singles beating three-time defending world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. Mona Chiba of Japan won the Bronze Medal with Americans Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn finishing behind her.

With her win, Liu became the first American woman to claim the World title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006. But the road to her win tells a captivating story of persistence and finding oneself. Counted out a year ago and not the favorite coming into the championships, she wowed the crowd with her dazzling performance. Her comeback story is right out of Hollywood.

Alysa Liu’s Early Years

Alysa Liu was born on August 8, 2005, in Clovis, California. She is the oldest child of Arthur Liu, an attorney who migrated to the U.S. in 1989 from Sichuan, China. He left China after his participation in the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests. Her mother, Yan “Mary” Qingxin is divorced from Arthur, but she is still Alysa’s and her sibling’s legal guardian, even though the Liu children were all conceived from anonymous egg donors.

Liu began skating when she was five, and at age 13, she became the youngest woman to win the U.S. Junior Championships. In 2020, before the world shut down, she defended her U.S. title. At age 14, the effervescent girl with the big smile and phenomenal talent was the future of U.S. Women’s Skating.

But the next year, she finished fourth in the U.S. Championships, failing to three-peat. At 16, although performing with poise and grace, she finished sixth at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Following her Bronze Medal winning performance at the World Championships, burnt out and unhappy, Liu announced her retirement in April 2022.

Away From Skating

Stating that she had reached all of her skating goals, she spent time her time away from the rink with family and friends. She finished her homeschooling and enrolled at UCLA in their psychology program. In addition, she went hiking in the Himalayas and on a ski trip to Lake Tahoe, she realized she wanted to give skating another try.

But her return would be on her terms. She took control of her career and started skating just for the joy of it, with no expectations or unnecessary pressure. On March 1, 2024, Liu posted a video on her Instagram page that read, “this 2024-25 season” and “back on the ice.” She brought back her old coaches Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali and began what she called her “starter season.”

Successful Comeback

In her return to skating in October 2024, she won the short program at the CS Budapest Trophy and finished second in the free skate but scored high enough to take home the gold medal. She next placed sixth overall at the Skate Canada International and followed that up with a fourth-place finish at the NHK Trophy. After this event, Liu expressed her joy regarding her return to competitive skating.

“I’d say my last two years skating before I was kind of, you know, a little out of it. I wasn’t totally in it. So this time, it’s a little bit different. I’m pretty into it. And I love my training. It’s even really fun and I am more present for sure; more happy and fun.”

In December 2024, she won gold at the CS Golden Spin of Zagreb and in January she finished second to Amber Glenn at the U.S. Championships. In February, her last competition before the World Championships, she finished fourth at the Four Continents Champions in Seoul, South Korea. As Liu prepared for the World Championships, she was brimming with confidence ready to to except whatever fate had in store for her.

A World Champion

Last Wednesday, skating to “Promise” by Laufey, Liu surprised herself and the world by skating a personal best 74.58 in the World Championships short program taking the lead supported by thunderous applause from the crowd at the arena. This set the stage for her big moment on Friday.

In a truly remarkable performance, skating to “MacArthur Park” by Boston’s own Donna Summer, she skated the best program of her entire career. Looking, confident, happy, and free, she nailed her routine to win the Championship in front of an adorning crowd. She said afterward.

“Not even yesterday, I didn’t expect this. I didn’t have expectations coming in. I never have expectations coming into competitions anymore. It’s more so, ‘What can I put out performance-wise?’ I really met my expectations on my part.”

And…

“I mean, it means so much to me and everything I’ve been through. My last skating experience, my time away and this time around — I’m so happy, I guess. I’m mostly glad I could put out two of my best performances.”

Her joyous comeback was now complete.