American women’s figure skating star Alysa Liu is retiring from the sport, she announced Saturday. Liu, who made her international senior debut last summer, is 16 years old.
“Heyyyyy so i’m here to announce that i am retiring from skating,” Liu wrote in an Instagram post. “I started skating when i was 5 so that’s about 11 years on the ice and it’s been an insane 11 years. a lot of good and a lot of bad but yk that’s just how it is. i’ve made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that i’ll have for the rest of my life. i honestly never thought i would’ve accomplished as much as i did LMAOO i’m so happy. i feel so satisfied with how my skating career has gone.”
The Oakland, Calif. native added that she will be “moving on with her life” and spending time with family and friends, as well as studying.
Liu won her first senior U.S title in 2019 at age 13, becoming the youngest woman to ever do so individually, then repeated in 2020. She was named to the 2022 Olympic Team despite testing positive for COVID-19 and having to withdraw from her second of two programs at the 2022 national championships, the de facto Olympic trials event.
In her Olympic debut, Liu placed eighth in the short program and moved up to seventh overall after the free skate — three spots ahead of the next American, Mariah Bell.
At the 2022 World Championships in March, her first at the senior level, Liu took bronze, becoming the first American woman to win a world medal since 2016 and just the second since 2006. The World Championships took place without Russian skaters.
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
