MILAN — When American Alysa Liu takes the Olympic ice at 10:32 p.m. local time Thursday, she will be just four minutes away from ending one of the most bizarre and embarrassing U.S. Olympic droughts not just in figure skating, but in any sport.
If the 20-year-old Liu simply does what she has been doing for the past year, if she stays true to her blithe spirit and skates as freely and boldly as usual, she likely will win a medal in the women’s figure skating competition at these Olympic Games.
She comes into the long program in third place, surrounded by three stellar Japanese skaters in first, second and fourth, with a young Russian lurking in fifth place, all of them bunched closely in points, so it’s not going to be easy. But if Liu doesn’t let the pressure get to her as it has to so many other figure skaters during these Games, she should win the first U.S. medal in women’s figure skating since Sasha Cohen’s silver in 2006.
Watch Olympics figure skating on Peacock
So how does she do that? If she mimics what she did in her short program, she will be well on her way, said Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano, co-host of the USA TODAY Sports ‘Milan Magic’ podcast.
“It was the look in her eye, the composure,” he said. ‘We’re used to the Alysa that’s happy to be there and doesn’t care, yet she was a little bit more serious when she took the ice. But I didn’t feel like it was a seriousness that would get in the way of her performance. It was the seriousness of a mature skater who was excited to be there and wanted to skate well for themselves.
“It looked like she was absorbing the whole aspect of, ‘This is the Olympics and I really want to feel that,’” Boitano continued. “And she let that show in her skating. She moved silkier than she ever did before, it was such a smooth program and she jumped like she always does and spun really well. She was spot on but she had this extra something.”
Katarina Witt, the two-time Olympic gold medalist from the former East Germany, said on ‘Milan Magic’ that when she watches Liu compete, she trusts what she is seeing.
“I trust her because I’ve seen her doing flawlessly,” Witt said on a podcast episode that airs Thursday, before Liu and the other leaders take the ice. “I feel like with her mind, she’s right there, she enjoys what she does, she is concentrating at the same time, she just does her thing.”
Listen to ‘Milan Magic’ on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube or on USA TODAY.
Liu’s resume is endlessly fascinating. She won her first national title at 13. She won her second at 14. She retired at 16 after making her first Olympic team and finishing seventh in 2022 in Beijing. She unretired at 18. She won the world championship at 19. And now here she is, on the verge of an individual Olympic medal. She already has a team gold from earlier in these Games.
What’s working for her is her attitude. At a time when athletes get especially tight, as we have seen, she has remained refreshingly loose. Name another Olympic medal favorite who would say this, as she did after her short program Tuesday night:
“A medal? I don’t need a medal. I just need to be here, and I just need to be present. And I need people to see what I do next.”
While some speak of triple axels and quadruple jumps, Liu is talking about showing off a new skating dress for the long program, and said she “really” wants to be invited to skate in the Olympic exhibition gala on Saturday, an honor that usually goes to the medalists in all four disciplines.
“I’m just putting it out there,” she said. “I really want to go to the Olympic gala. I have a really cool gala program that I’m working on, and it’s basically done. I have a dress, everything. So I’m thinking about it.”
As long as she is thinking about that, she’s not thinking about what so many of her peers have been dealing with at these Games: unbearable nerves, tension and pressure, with the predictable unfortunate results.
So, combine her unique attitude with her innate talent for jumping, spinning and revving up a crowd, and she just might do what so many here have had such trouble doing:
That is, everything a skater hopes and dreams she can accomplish on the most important night of her young life.