There is something different about watching Alysa Liu skate.
In a sport built on precision, discipline, and control, she seems determined to make room for something else: joy.
It is there in the music she chooses, the clothes she wears, and the way she glides across the ice. That spirit shines through when she talks about skating too. Perfection? She's not particularly interested.
It is a philosophy Liu has had to learn. After years competing at the highest level, she stepped away from figure skating aged 16 before finding her way back to the sport - only this time, on her own terms.
When questions were raised about whether she would change her hair or remove her piercings, Liu knew where she stood.
"At 18, I was like: I know my worth. It was so freeing."
That sense of knowing what she needs - and being willing to act on it - continues to shape Liu's career. She recently announced that she will sit out the 2026-27 competitive season, taking time to recalibrate before returning to competition.
It is a freedom she wants other girls to find for themselves, too.
We spoke to Alysa about finding her way back to what she loves; about feminism, friendship over rivalry, and what it will take to make sport a place where every woman and girl can belong.
On joy and creativity: "Making mistakes is beautiful"
For Liu, skating is both sport and self-expression.
"I love emphasizing how I feel, and I do that through fashion, through choreography, and through what music I skate to", she says. "With skating, it feels like I can kind of do all of it in one. I can dance on the ice, and I can pick what I'm wearing. There are a ton of little outlets in figure skating, which is cool."
That freedom extends to the way she approaches competition.
"I'm not really afraid to fail", she says.
Part of that comes from knowing whose opinions matter. Rather than turning to the public for validation or criticism, Liu relies on the people she trusts.
"I have a really good team and a good group of people around me. For criticism or advice, I go to the people I know. I don't really turn to the public."
But there has also been a deeper shift in how she thinks about success.
"I used to be a perfectionist when I was a kid, but now I love when things are imperfect. There's something so beautiful and human about that."
"I'm all about experiencing life. It would be no fun if everything just worked out, if there were no bumps. I feel like I learn the most from the low points, so I can really enjoy the high points."
On girls in sport: "Sport is so freeing"
Ask Liu why sport matters for girls and young women, and she comes back to one word: freedom.
"Sport is so liberating and it's so freeing", she says. "Being able to exercise your willpower and expend your energy - it's such a cool thing."
Artistic sports can offer another dimension.
"You can really explore that part of yourself while maintaining being an athlete."
But Liu is equally clear about what can drive girls away.
"So many girls drop out of sports because there's not enough body positivity surrounding sport", she says. "They don't think they look right for it."
She has experienced those pressures herself and argues that outdated expectations about female athletes' bodies can clash with the physical reality of being strong enough to compete.
"We're athletes, but we get told we shouldn't be muscular or buff. We should just be lean. We can't be super lean if we're working out all the time."
For Liu, what is lost when girls internalize those messages is bigger than sport.
"There's so much potential out there. It would be a shame if someone's own perception of their body stopped them from doing what they love or what they could love to do."
On stereotypes in sport: "Y'all won't be seeing me"
Figure skating has long carried rigid ideas about how women should look and present themselves. Liu believes things are beginning to change, albeit slowly.
When she returned to skating, there were questions about whether she would change her hair or remove her piercings.
Her answer was simple.
"I told them I wouldn't come back. They were like, 'What would happen if we told you to change your hair and stuff like that?' And I was like, 'Y'all won't be seeing me.'"
She laughs, but the boundary mattered.
"At 18, I was like: I know my worth. It was so freeing."
Liu sees signs of progress in the range of women now competing at the highest level.
"There are more girls on the bigger stages who are more muscular than what it used to be. I think it's showing that people of different body types can still be elite athletes."
But the double standards remain visible.
"Men in competitions don't need to wear makeup, don't need to do their hair. For women, they have to. Even in practice sometimes."
That can mean female athletes waking up at 4 a.m. just to get ready for practice - time their male counterparts are not expected to spend on their appearance, and can instead use to rest, prepare, or train.
Liu describes it as the "packaging" surrounding women's sport - the expectation that athletic performance must come wrapped in a particular version of femininity.
"Our packaging is so different between women and men in figure skating."
On friendship and rivalry: "We are not meant to be sold"
When Liu returned to competitive figure skating, the media began to shape an all-too-familiar story about her and fellow U.S. skaters Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito: Who would win? Who would come out on top? Except that wasn't their story.
"We're really good friends", Liu says.
Liu says women skaters have long been pitted against one another: "The higher-ups have always pitted women against each other, and even the media."
This time, Liu and her friends decided to flip the script.
"We really pushed it. Anytime interviewers would ask sketchy questions, we'd shut it down really fast."
They posted together, made TikToks together, and made their friendship impossible to ignore. Eventually, Liu noticed the narrative beginning to shift.
"We were put in the same article, but as a trio, which was nice. They used a friendship lens instead of a competitor lens."
For Liu, that matters for the girls watching.
"Sport can be more fruitful if you're friends with your teammates and competitors. We are teammates, essentially. We're not always competitors. You can cheer for other people."
And Liu does.
"I love when I compete with my friends because I get to watch them. I'd be crying watching my friends. It feels so much more meaningful to me to cry while watching someone else or be happy for someone else."
When told that rivalry sells, Liu doesn't hesitate:
"We are not meant to be sold."
Then she considers it for a second.
"I guess it also proved that friendship sells."
And laughs.
"I would much rather have friendship sell."
On women athletes: "Our achievements are downplayed. Men's are super-played."
"I genuinely don't know what it is about women's sports that makes people think we're not athletes."
At the Olympics, Liu experienced that disconnect first-hand. After skating what she describes as the best performance of her life, she found some of the attention focused not on her athletic achievement, but on her as a woman.
"I had just competed and skated the best I'd ever done."
For Liu, that experience is part of a much bigger pattern.
"Women's achievements and accomplishments haven't been recorded in history accurately."
"Our achievements are downplayed and men's are just being super played."
She sees the same inequality in the visibility that women athletes receive today:
"Viewership, broadcasting, our visibility and our screen time...it's so much lower than men in sports."
