Alysa Liu back on the Olympic stage, this time truly herself

MILAN – Alysa Liu skated backward across the center of the ice, gliding into the consecutive triple jumps that climax her Olympic short program. As she did so, her figure skating teammate Amber Glenn, seated in a rinkside cheering section, leaned back in her seat and grabbed onto the arm of Ilia Malinin, sitting to her left. Liu took off.

Triple lutz nailed. Triple loop nailed.

With both fists clenching an American flag, Glenn let out a yell in celebration. She then tilted her head back and let out a sigh of relief, her hand over her heart as her eyes rolled.

Glenn’s anguish hinted at the stakes (and her own intensity). She felt every ounce of the pressure on Liu’s performance.

Liu, it seemed, felt none.

“I feel hype. I feel really good right now,” she said. “I don’t know what’s up with me. They’re going to actually have to dissect my brain when I’m dead and figure me out.”

Liu shot into first place with a score of 74.90. Not her best, by any means, but enough to do the job on Day 1 of the figure skating team competition. The penultimate skater of the day made sure the United States entered Day 2 in the lead.

This is the Alysa Liu she wants the world to know. After shocking the figure skating world with her retirement in April 2022, she came back with a promise to do it her way. And with all it took to get this version of herself to this stage, effervescence came naturally.

What perhaps should have been nerves processed for Liu as exhilaration. What could’ve provoked anxiety instead yielded affection. A tangible glee for the stage and for the moment.

Liu bashfully hid behind her hands when the crowd at Milan Ice Skating Arena gave her an ovation. She smiled like a teenager as she waved at her U.S. teammates. She giggled when she threw her water bottle to her coaches and neither Phillip DiGuglielmo nor Massimo Scali caught it.

This was all before she skated.

And after she finished her nearly three-minute routine, beneath the serenade of a crowd, she took a moment to soak it in. The song for her short program – “Promise” by Laufey – always puts Liu in her feelings.

“It’s a super-personal program, and I love being in the feels,” she said. “So I was really trying to dive deep in it, especially while I was still out there on the ice. You know, we’re not out there for very long, so I try to savor every moment.”

It’s her second time on the Olympic stage. The last time, she reached the pinnacle stage of her sport with talent activated by extraneous pressure. A prodigy who won a national championship in middle school, lauded as the end of the American women’s Olympic medal drought, Liu arrived in Beijing in 2022 as a curated product of external influence. She did what she was told, excelled at what she was taught and made her first Olympics at 16. Almost fittingly, her debut wound up tainted by the pandemic. The life of the event snatched away by an empty arena and social distancing.

Four years later, it feels like another debut. She arrived in Milan a new person. More accurately, as the person she truly is. Competitive and yet unmistakably blithe. Self-deprecating and humble while exuding a self-assuredness unbecoming of her youth. These Olympics are the first achieved by her volition, fueled by her personhood. Still ever talented, Liu now governs the expression and execution of her ability.

Her father, who said he spent over half a million dollars turning his daughter into a world-class skater, is no longer in charge of her career. But she’s still Arthur Liu’s daughter, her independence and strong will ever a product of her single father who raised five kids after migrating from China to the Bay Area.

“The biggest difference?” she said, repeating the question posed to her in the mixed zone Friday. “That I have creative ideas that I got to satisfy and show here today.”

She returns to the Olympic stage with the best of both worlds.

Those early years of grinding weren’t for naught. The expertise she developed from being pushed to an elite level, it shows up now. Her experience and refinement push her degree of difficulty and rack up points on the grade of execution. At 20 now, she’s taller, stronger and more athletic. She didn’t pull out the triple axel, but her ability to throw together combinations and make difficult elements look so smooth is remarkable.

But the freedom she exudes elevates the artistry of her skating. The fun she’s having shows up in her choreography and energy. She even laughs at her own mistakes. Friday, her second jump, a double axel, finished with a bit of an off-balance landing.

She even smiled as she watched the slow-motion replay. What was going through her head as she watched?

“I can’t believe I did that,” she said. “Oh, my god. Well, I was like, ‘Whoopsies!’ ”

That’s the perspective fashioned by her journey. She returned to skating because she loves it. No expectations. No goal to make the Olympics. But she’s here because it all adds up to an excellence that puts her in medal contention.

But that’s later. Friday was about contributing to the United States’ medal hopes, something she didn’t get to do last cycle, when she finished seventh in the 2022 women’s singles.

In the ice dance competition, Madison Chock and Evan Bates did what was expected by winning the rhythm dance portion. Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam, making their Olympic debut, finished fifth in the pairs short program. So the U.S. needed Liu’s typical greatness with little room for error.

Liu delivered. Her second-place finish – behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto – staved off impressive showings from Japan and Italy. The U.S. leads by 2 points over Japan and 3 points over Italy.

With Liu pegged for the short program, the smart money is on Glenn to fill the Americans’ slot in the free skate. That selection has not been announced.

U.S. Figure Skating announced Friday that Malinin will do the short program for the men, which leaves Maxim Naumov or Andrew Torgashev providing the finishing performance for America in the men’s free skate.

They’re in position for gold because Liu returned as herself. Fulfilled her promise.

“I love being, I guess, noticed for things that I make or, like, my ideology,” Liu said. “And that’s what’s been happening to me lately, so I really can’t complain. … People ask me about my mindset, which I’m really proud of it. It took a lot to get here, you know what I’m saying? And so I’m glad that I can kind of share it on a global stage, in a way.”