LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Alysa Liu’s Olympic season began three months ago in Norwood, Massachusetts for a U.S. Figure Skating pre-season training camp.

Then came Bergamo, Italy for a Challenger Series competition. And Chongqing, China, 1,200 miles southwest of Beijing, for the Cup of China Grand Prix competition, followed by a (purposely) sleepless night and a flight the next day to New York City for the U.S. Olympic committee’s media days previewing the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Next was a little more than two weeks at her home in the San Francisco Bay area. And, in the latest episode of 'Where’s Alysa,' she wound up in the you-can’t-get-there-from-here north woods of New York state, specifically Lake Placid, for the Saatva Skate America Grand Prix event.

Ms. Liu heads back to the Bay Area with the Skate America gold medal, her first win at a Grand Prix event, and another long trip added to her Olympic season itinerary. This one is to Nagoya, Japan for the Grand Prix Final in two and one-half weeks.

Combined with a second place at Cup of China, her victory Sunday earned the reigning world champion one of the six singles spots in the Grand Prix Final women’s field.

Fortunately, her agent was able to arrange a recent photo shoot for one of Liu’s sponsors, Procter & Gamble, in San Francisco.

But it’s no wonder Liu, 20, has to work on staying grounded, in the literal and figurative senses of the word.

Especially since this schedule has swept her up in a whirlwind of attention she created with two stunning performances that brought her an utterly unexpected victory at the 2025 World Championships last March.

“Figure skating at this level, it’s kind of the fast life,” Liu said. “You’re at this media thing, you’re at that media thing. Sometimes it gets overwhelming, because you’re talking a lot about yourself, and it’s not normal to talk about yourself this much.

“That gets me a little ungrounded, makes me feel a little not real, like I’m a concept or something.”

The concept of Liu being a 2026 Olympic medal contender does seem unreal after unhappiness about skating led her to dump the sport for two years after the 2022 Olympics.

Yet she has skated so well since returning last season that even a Grand Prix victory with her season’s best total score thoroughly was not satisfying.

That’s why Liu slapped and shook her head in bewilderment after a free skate that allowed her to beat Japan’s Rinka Watanabe, who had taken a small lead in Friday’s short program. The final points were 214.27 to 210.96.

Liu was confounded over not having skated better.

“In my opinion, I did not skate that good,” Liu said. “My jumps are usually better. That’s a little frustrating. I want to do clean jumps in competition because I can do them."

The judges called two of her jumps under rotated. She figured, with Liu logic, that part of the problem came from tying her boot laces too tight, affecting her takeoffs.

“The one good thing about making so many mistakes in the program is I’m so motivated not to make any mistakes in my next program,” she said.

Although Liu insisted she was not tired from all her travels, she did not have her usual élan in performing to a version of MacArthur Park that switches halfway from moody to Donna Summer disco.

This may have been her final time using that music, which she also used throughout last season. She had planned Lady Gaga music for this season, but she and her coaching team had been stymied in trying to come up with good cuts.

“I really want to have my Gaga program ready for the Grand Prix Final, but it’s not much time,” Liu said, “More logical people are going to explain to me why I should probably do it, but if things aren’t fully ready, like my dress and stuff, I don’t want to.

“The choreography is basically done. But as for the whole concept, not quite.”

And if this was the last time skating to the MacArthur Park concept, which she had a significant role in creating, which made her a world champion?

“I do wish I had performed a little better,” she said.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at every Winter Olympics since 1980, is a special contributor to NBCOlympics.com.