By Jennifer Roback
At the young age of 16, Alysa Liu has already accomplished so much in her respective field, including winning the 2022 World bronze medal, the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, as well as becoming a two-time U.S. national champion. However, on April 9, she officially announced her retirement.
"I'm here to announce that I am retiring from skating," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I started skating when I was 5 so that's about 11 years on the ice and it's been an insane 11 years."
While the teenager did not go into specifics on why she decided to retire, she noted that her career included "a lot of good and a lot of bad [experiences]" but overall, she is happy and satisfied.
"I've made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I'll have for the rest of my life," Liu continued. "I honestly never thought I would've accomplished as much as I did. I'm so happy. I feel so satisfied with how my skating career has gone."
"Now that I'm finally done with my goals in skating I'm going to be moving on with my life," she added, before explaining that her new spare time will be spent with friends and family.
Her decision comes just months after she competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she placed seventh.
She had previously given up hope of fulfilling her Olympic dream after she tested positive for the coronavirus and had to withdraw midway through the U.S. championship in January, however, after a successful petition, she was able to join Team USA on the ice.
"I am really happy," Liu said at the time. "I just can’t believe I actually did a clean short program today, because I’ve trained so much. I’m just really glad that all my training paid off, because I’m here competing. And the goal of my whole life and my skating career was to compete at the Olympics, so now I can officially say I’m an ‘Olympian.'"
In August 2019, she made her junior international competitive debut and had stunned the world by becoming the first junior American woman to land a quadruple jump in competition, she was also the first woman to successfully complete a triple axel and a quad in the same program, according to USA Today.