Alysa Liu, 20, wants you to know she’s an artist. 

Horizontal stripes of bleach blonde hair, a frenulum piercing visible only when she smiles (which is to say, a lot), a clothing style that leans toward grunge — the reigning world champion’s aesthetic isn’t exactly that of your typical figure skater.

“I'm just very much into the arts,” Liu said. 

She loves photography, making things in all sorts of mediums, and considers sharing art with others an aspect of her extroverted personality. It was the pursuit of these parts of herself that led to a two-year retirement from the sport in 2022, and they’ve shaped the athlete she’s become since her return.

When Liu first announced her intention to walk away from competitive ice at just 16 years old, the move seemed crazy. She’d just placed 6th at the Beijing Olympics. She was the youngest American woman to win nationals at age 13, the first to land a quadruple jump in competition, the first U.S. junior woman to land a triple Axel, to name just a few of her many groundbreaking achievements. 

But staying in the sport didn’t seem worth the cost.

“I really felt trapped and stuck, and the only way — in my brain — to try other things, was to leave the sport,” she said.

Back then, training was a chore, with ice-rink friendships bringing an element of fun that she looked forward to as a child. But when the pandemic hit, she moved to train elsewhere, losing even those connections. 

“I literally skated every single day. I had no break. Training was awful,” Liu said. “[After the pandemic] I wasn't with my friends, so that made it harder mentally, because I'm such an extrovert, and I thrive around people. It made it so I'd rather be doing anything else than training.”

A lot has changed since then. She went to college, found friends who knew nothing about figure skating, hiked the base camp of Mount Everest, decided she missed figure skating, came back, and promptly won the world championship title. 

Liu calls her decision to leave the sport the best she’s ever made, and it’s not hard to see why.

Today she’s more strategic with her schedule, more able to lock in, and less burnt out at the end of the week.

“It’s my work. I want to be there. I feel like I don't need that social aspect, because I get it everywhere else in my life,” she said.

After the stunning success she had earlier this year, the start to this season appeared a little rocky. Liu struggled with issues related to new boots, delaying her competition training while the problems were resolved. 

She’s also had to rethink her program music choices — for the Grand Prix season at least — returning to both her short program and free skate from last season.

The intention, she said, had been to follow up on her strong short program from 2024-25 to Laufey’s ‘Promise,’ with another program by the artist. She chose ‘This is how it Feels,’ — a collaboration with D4vd. However, when serious allegations involving D4vd came to light, Liu chose to backtrack.

Her free skate to a medley by Lady Gaga also has been put on pause, deemed, “not right yet,” after a disappointing outing at Lombardia Trophy, where Liu finished in 4th place. 

“I’m going to keep ‘Promise’ for the rest of the season,” Liu said, expressing some sadness that she can’t have two short programs in her inventory. “And I'm not sure when my other free skate is coming, but it’s still Gaga.”

Liu said she loves performing for a crowd but it’s still the creative process that she most enjoys in her “second” career. 

“This sport, it's also artistic. You get to pick music, design dresses, do choreography and dance (but that’s very limited, you can't do hip hop on ice — that does not look good),” Liu said. “Music is big for me. If I really love what I’m listening to, my body just moves.”

She also is thrilled to be back enjoying the physical challenge her sport provides and is adamant she will bring her triple Axel back to competition at some point.

“I love training,” she said. “That’s one of my favorite things about skating. It’s kind of why I’m back. I love the grind, and I love just challenging myself every day.”

Liu’s enthusiasm for her sport, which seems refreshingly untethered to competition results, perhaps is her superpower this Olympic season. She competes so she can train, not the other way around. When asked what she most looks forward to about potentially making the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics for Team USA, she lists spending time with her competitors, who she describes as friends, sisters, mentors.

Liu isn’t sure what’s next. She put her schooling at UCLA on hold, as midterms clashed with the competitive season, but she hopes to return to finish a degree in psychology before her friends graduate.

“In those two years off the ice I really got to know myself. At 16, I really didn’t know myself,” Liu said. “I learned that I have to listen to my brain and body, and taking a rest or knowing when to stop is crucial.”

Right now, that means focusing on figure skating (she’s alluded to the “next fours years” but makes no promises), taking plenty of time to indulge her other passions, and enjoying every step of the process. 

She heads into the ISU Grand Prix Skate America with one Grand Prix silver medal under her belt. If she can place either first or second at this event, she likely is guaranteed a place in the Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan, – a career-first for her. But regardless of the results, Liu has in many ways already won. Having stepped away once, she seems released from the pressure and stress often experienced by elite athletes.

“In order for me to be anxious, it would have to mean I’m really counting on it or depending on it. And I’m not really depending on skating,” she said. “Of course there’s meaning in it, but I find the meaning in the art – and there’s no way to go wrong with that. Even mistakes in art, can still be beautiful”