MILAN — Alysa Liu will attempt to finish a 24-year drought for American girls in Olympic determine skating on Thursday evening when the “Blade Angel” makes an attempt to chase down Japanese rivals Ami Nakai and Kaori Sakamoto within the free skate on the Milan Cortina Video games.

The 20-year-old Liu scored 76.59 factors for an impeccable quick program on Tuesday evening, leaving the freethinking native of the San Francisco Bay space simply over two factors behind Nakai and fewer than a degree again of Sakamoto within the particular person competitors.

The U.S. has not had a girl stand atop an Olympic podium since Sarah Hughes on the 2002 Salt Lake Metropolis Video games.

Requested whether or not Liu thinks she will be able to upstage Nakai and Sakamoto, she replied: “I don’t take into consideration stuff like that. Whether or not I beat them or not shouldn’t be my purpose. My purpose is simply to do my packages and share my story and I don’t should be over or below anybody to try this.”

It’s precisely that type of angle that has allowed Liu to achieve a comeback from a two-year retirement.

The youngest determine skater ever to win the U.S. championship, when she triumphed in 2019 on the age of 13, Liu appeared destined for stardom. She might hit the massive triple axels that solely the most effective girls on the earth might pull off, and her grace and talent had positioned her within the line of succession behind the likes of Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski and different nice American skaters.

She certified for the Beijing Video games on the age of 16, ending sixth — after which she give up.

What all these individuals neatly categorizing her as the subsequent U.S. star did not understand was that she was burned out. Liu had spent most of her childhood in rinks, her father dropping her off within the mornings and choosing her up at evening. Later, she would transfer to Colorado to concentrate on her coaching, and her life revolved round a dorm room, faculty work and practices.

“The rink was my dwelling for much too lengthy,” Liu advised The Related Press forward of the Winter Video games. “And I did not have a selection, you recognize what I am saying? Like, I type of needed to go together with it. I used to be away from my household. I needed to dwell on my own your complete time, and the previous few years I used to be getting actually homesick. I used to be lacking Christmas and Thanksgiving. And I used to be like, ‘This isn’t proper.’”

Liu had graduated highschool at 15, so upon her sudden retirement in 2022, she enrolled at UCLA to check psychology.

She hung out with mates on snowboarding journeys. She hiked to the bottom camp of Mount Everest. She did all of the issues that she had wished to do for therefore lengthy however couldn’t due to the grueling follow and competitors schedule of worldwide skating.

“I actually despised skating as a result of I assumed that was the explanation why all that needed to occur to me,” Liu stated. “Via time I spotted, like, it’s not the case. It doesn’t need to be like that. And yeah, I simply don’t need to take the game very significantly.”

Even on the Olympics.

Final 12 months, Liu turned the primary American to win a world title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006. And now, after her quick program that earned a career-best 76.59 factors on Tuesday evening, she will be able to finish an Olympic drought that stretches again even longer.

Sound like strain? Not for Liu. Not anymore.

“Competitions are my responsible pleasure, principally,” she stated, “however the coaching is like, the place my coronary heart is, as a result of I can do no matter I need. Free vary, no guidelines, for nevertheless lengthy I need. I can skate to no matter songs and simply do my very own factor.”

That do-my-own-thing angle is mirrored in her distinctive type. Liu has coloured her hair in brown and brunette stripes to symbolize the expansion rings on a tree, and plans so as to add one every year to represent her personal progress. She has a novel frenulum piercing that glints within the mild in entrance of her tooth when she smiles. Even her clothes is a mirrored image of her individualism.

“I like the method of making issues,” Liu stated. “Skating is one strategy to specific myself.”

The remainder of Liu’s teammates struggled within the quick program Tuesday evening. Amber Glenn missed a vital triple loop that left the three-time reigning U.S. champion in thirteenth place, whereas Isabeau Levito made sufficient smaller errors to fall to eighth place.

Which means Liu is the final of the “Blade Angels” with an opportunity at Olympic glory Thursday evening.

“I’m OK if I do a fail program. I’m completely OK if I do a fantastic program,” she stated. “It doesn’t matter what the end result is, it’s nonetheless my story.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics