Boston – once prophesied, as Alysa Liu returns the glory to us by female figure skating skating.
At the age of 13 she became the youngest woman who won the US Championship in 2019. She was born miracles. The bubble girl from Oakland, California, with talent larger than her frame and a smile, enough to soften the ice, was on the way to the top. In 2020, before the closure of the world, she defended her American title. She was anointed by the future by 14 years.
But at the age of 15, she finished fourth in the US championships and was unable to be three -way. At the age of 16, while exhibiting Pois without her age, she finished sixth in the Beijing winter games dominated by the Russians. Then, after the bronze medal at the World Championship, she announced her retirement in April 2022. Burned in an effort to perfection declared her happiness, life outside the skates.
Three years later, now at the age of 19, Liu fulfills the harbinger of inspired. On Friday it captured the first World Championship and broke the American 19 -year -old drought gold medals. After two or more years, retirement from sport.
“I tried to talk to her,” said coach Liu, Phillip Diguglielmo. “No one has done it. No one will leave and come back.”
But Liu returned even better. Her perfection in a short program and free skates is likely to etch her name in the US readiness for the Winter Olympics in just 11 months. American figure skating can take any three women who choose to Milan, no matter how they ended up in these worlds. But Liu interrupted her case by displaying her maturation as a woman and a skater.
If you want to retire from retirement, enter the clear phase of the World Championship and perform as her – so consistently with a command that felt effortlessly – moved her as a candidate for the first American woman to win the Olympic singles in 24 years.
“What a hell? What a hell? What a hell?”
That’s what Liu said that her mind had passed when she ended. Fate tends to feel unreal.
“I never have expectations for competitions again,” she said. “It’s more of what I can do, and today I have really met my expectations in that part.”
The true essence of what was revealed in TD Garden is how the history has developed. The big final for women’s singles was supposed to undress the crowd of selection. Amber Glenn, an American favorite, opened a glove with a statement. It was a manifestation of defiance. After reminding the world on Wednesday that she was deadly with a fall into a short program, Glenn was determined on Friday’s free skates to remind you how other world could be.
Glenn, 16 of the 24 skaters, was restored as a power for the United States with strong performance back. She nailed her elements, delivered intensity, wanted to go back to the skater he dominated the whole year. She scored 138.00 on her free skates and at that time she was first in the first place with a total score of 205.65.
Then, the triple defending world champion Kaori Sakamoto from Japan with a disposable Glenn with a strong declaration of her brilliance, after a great performance in a short program. She brought a house with “all the jazz” of Chicago, dressed in all black to fit into the vibration of a popular musical. She ran past the ice rink with the showmanship of and the champion, landing three times to rhythm and fed the energy of the arena. And when she was done, she released it all – with shouts and foster pumps. Took Glenn to 1 place. A new bar was set: 217,98.
Kaori Sakamoto from Japan (left) congratulates Alysa Liu for her victory on Friday in the women’s competition at the World Figure Skating Championship. (Geoff Robins / AFP through Getty Images)
American Isabeau Levito couldn’t clean it. After dazzling in her short program, a stunning revelation after a fracture of stress in her right leg, she kept her in January before the US Championship, her gold medal hopes that she had evaporated without free skates in the opening minute. She fell on her opening jump sequence. The rest of her routine was as clean as elegant. But the fall fell out of the claim of the gold medal, a reality that she recognized immediately after her routine with the look of disappointment. It ended fourth with a score of 209.84.
American hopes in his home nation fell on Liu. The last skater of the night.
All of them blown. She owned a moment because it was paramount. After a stunning Wednesday short program, Liu undoubtedly left her free skates and captured her first gold medal of the World Championship with a score of 222,97. Sakamoto, about five points in a row, took silver. Japanese Money Chiba took bronze.
Liu’s readiness emphasized only the feeling of fate. That was a book. The known vibrations have caused goose bumps. She never felt skating in all her previous years.
“I really don’t think I want to do any competition,” Liu said after her short program. “Besides I didn’t want to do it, in my opinion I was definitely not ready for competitions.”
Liu said she chose music for her routine “Macarthur Park” by Donna Summer before she knew the worlds were in Boston, and without knowing that Donna Summer was out of the area. Yet it was perfect enough to feel intentionally, the way she landed a triple loop, just when the pace in the song changed. TD Garden appeared with music and applauded with the Disco song from the late 70 years. Liu’s Verve increased on the allusion.
“People stood on a flying camel,” Diguglielmo said. “Why are you applauding a flying camel? We have three more main jumping. And a step. And choreo. “
At the age of 19, Alysa Liu supplied the United States the first world title in female singles by Kimmie Meissner in 2006 (Geoff Robins / AFP through Getty Images)
When she encountered a triple sequence of the Axel-Double sequence of Lutz-Double, it was over. Because it was clear that she was in the zone. Or, as Diguglielmo said, gathered his best attempt at Tiktok Lingo: “She was in the club.” There is no ounce of intimidation.
The nervousness of the coach aside, it was obvious that something uncomfortable. Cooling that has believed size. Its layout was followed by joy and not on weight. The confusion of events gave this young woman where she had to be to do what was born and to be who she deserved to be. And she knows it because she chose it.
Such a distinctive performance prevents the landscape of the hopeful hope of gold medals for the Milan Olympics. How could no prognosis include the escape star that the world has just testified?
The World Championship in 2025 did not include Russians who dominate sports. It is still unclear whether they will be allowed to compete in Milan, although their absence in the world does not sound promising. The nation was expelled from the invasion of Ukraine from international competition.
So it’s time for America mature to re -capture its legacy of the Olympic success. Liu illustrated that the game is a challenge and gives the US another hopeful next to Glenn. Levito, 18, also looked very good space.
Much of America’s history in women’s figure skating is elite because Tenley Albright won the first Winter Olympic Gold of the State in 1956. It was the first in the 13 Olympic cycles to see that the US in women’s singles would take gold in female singles seven times.
11 other silver or bronze skaters have also won since the Albright’s victory, the last Sasha Cohen medal in 2006 was the silver medal. During the 50 -year section from Albright’s Gold, the women of 18 singles won. The only other countries with more than three medals in this range are Germany with six.
For the US in female singles, however, this has been drought on stage in the last four Winter Olympic cycles. Not in Levit’s life, the American woman has medals in the greatest event of sport.
Liu enters the mix as a viable candidate for drought. Talent has always been undisputed. He has a great experience that appeared under the ceiling of championship banners in TD Garden. Peace, which claims to have found from sport, suggests that it is mentally prepared for this challenge. Why can’t the first American gold medalist by Sarah Hughes be in 2002?
The beauty of what Liu has found is that it does not seem to depend on whether the Olympic gold wins. And this liberation is why it cannot be calculated from pulling out. It is without a result of failure and thus limiting limits.
She skated this way on Friday. As one stolen from regret. As one driven by zeal of authenticity. Like one who found his purpose, strangely, in the same place she left to find him.
The crowd caught the infection and encouraged her step sequence of Massimo Scali as Liu jumped up and turned and threw her hands, flashing a smile that she couldn’t pretend. Then she lifted speed, slipped over the ice on one knee, leaning far enough to keep her hair to sweep the ice.
This is how you slip on fate.
(Photos of Alysa Liu celebrating her gold medal victory on Friday at the World Championship: Geoff Robins / AFP through Getty Images)
