"I would live at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, in a dorm by myself. I would eat their food. I went to the rink, skated, ate lunch there, skated some more. Went back to the dorm. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't see anything. I was just there."
"And so all that, I was like, 'Skating is not worth it.' Like, this is not worth it. I didn't, you know, care about what I skated to, or what my dress was like. I let everyone else decide. So I was really like, 'Who am I?' I felt like a puppet other people were using."
Alysa Liu abruptly retired from elite figure skating after the 2022 Beijing Olympics at age 16, exhausted by relentless training and lacking a normal childhood. She lived alone at the Olympic Training Center, followed rigid routines, and felt like a puppet as others decided music and costumes. After leaving, she enrolled at UCLA, expanded her social circle, traveled, and reached Mount Everest Base Camp. A skiing trip's adrenaline prompted her to skate again for enjoyment, not competition. That renewed perspective rekindled competitive ambition. Liu, now 20, is preparing for the U.S. championships and a likely Winter Olympics bid in Italy.
Read at The Mercury News
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