Two-time U.S. champion Alysa Liu is returning to figure skating.
Liu, still just 18, retired from skating in April 2022 after earning the bronze medal at the world championships that year.
But she is back on the ice, announcing in a video posted to Instagram on Friday that she’d be competing in the 2024-25 season. She has been practicing since January, the video showed.
“It was good for me to take time off from skating, and I am beyond excited to begin skating again with my newly found perspective,” Liu said in a news release from U.S. Figure Skating.
In 2019, Liu became the youngest competitor to win the U.S. women’s title when she was just 13.
The Californian finished sixth in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and her return now likely indicates she’ll make a run at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
According to U.S. Figure Skating, Liu became the youngest skater in history, and the third American woman, to land a triple Axel in international competition. She was 12 when she did so in the Asian Open in 2018. She also became the first American woman to complete a quadruple Lutz in competition in 2019 at the Junior Grand Prix USA.
“We are very excited about Alysa’s return,” said Justin Dillon, the association’s senior director of athlete high performance. “We look forward to supporting Alysa in her career as she seeks to build on the success she has already achieved in recent seasons.”
–Field Level Media