In just one season, Alysa Liu has taken the world skating scene by storm. She is now widely acclaimed as a great athlete and competitor, one of the very best on technical elements in the world. And yet at the same time she is a wonderful young girl, one of those girls any parents would love to have in their family. "You're a sunshine!" A Russian reporter even told her after the event.
"I'm an extravert with my friends," Liu offered to introduce herself better to the international press in Torino. "I'm home-schooled, which means that I don't need to go to a school building every day. I do my classes online, when I can. I have four siblings, and we get along pretty well, they are funny. We love each other. My normal day is kind of boring, really, but my friends and my coach make it exciting!"
Skating is obviously a big part in Liu's life and development. As soon as she steps on the ice, she looks long and tall, and when you see her in normal life, you're impressed to discover a young teen-ager with a wonderful smile in front of you. "If I look tall on the ice, it's because my skates add 2 inches!" she suggested with a big smile. "I've been working on my extension a bit more," she also admitted. "The more you stretch your legs and arms, the taller you'll look," she added.
The first thing Liu did when she left the kiss and cry after her free program and reached the green room, was to congratulate Russia's Kamila Valieva, who had just taken the first place. "Good job!" She told the Russian skater, who is just one year younger than Liu's.
"I was disappointed because my goal is always to skate a clean program but I didn't do it," Liu offered. "But obviously I was very happy for her," Liu explained after the event. "I was still really happy to have come here and to have medaled. I didn't feel envious of hers. We'll all be happy for everyone when they win," she offered in all candor. "Training with Russian girls is really exciting. I don't really feel rivalry with them. I'm just in my own thing," she added.
During the free skating of the senior category, she could be found in the stands, carrying a "Alina" post like hundreds of other spectators. "We should support one another!" She commented, still with her big smile. "Zagitova really inspired me at the last Olympics," she explained. "She back-loaded all her jumps and it inspired me very much," she added.
In Torino, Liu displayed – by far – the strongest technical content of the whole junior field, men included. She had planned two triple Axels and two quadruple Lutzes, a feat no junior lady had ever accomplished. She didn't quite succeed, as she fell on her first Axel and her other jumps, though properly landed, were deemed underrotated.
The best lady skaters land either quads or triple Axels, not both. Liu became the first one in the world to do so. Japan's Rika Kihira, who reached instant fame last year when she landed two triple Axels in her free program, failed to land both a quad and a triple Axel when she fell on her first quad Salchow in Torino. But Liu wanted to go beyond the feat she had premièred, and land twice as many jumps.
Liu's scoreboard in Torino was quite rare - her free program base value was 14 points higher than Valieva's. "I should have done only one quad in my program," Liu admitted. "But I wanted to go for two quad Lutzes and two triple Axels, just for the fun of it. It was very risky, but I'm happy to have done it."
When asked which skaters she looks up to, Liu is quick to answer: "Nathan Chen (three-time Grand Prix Final champion) and Alexandra Trusova (who won the bronze medal in the senior category) because she is very brave. She goes for everything." Liu was not far behind the Russian phenom, who is just one year older than she is, in Torino.
The story of Liu's quad Lutz seems so natural, that one may think everyone could follow the same route easily. "I feel that when you have learnt triples, you want to move on learning quads. I tried a quad Salchow some time ago but I stopped. I loved triple Lutz so much, that we decided to go for quad Lutz and I did try it. I was not scared, because that first one was so bad, that it was not scary. It was just a triple fall! It became scarier afterwards, when I started getting closer to landing them, because I suppose it was out of my comfort zone."
Triple Axels and quads are Liu's strongest weapons at the moment, but she has other priorities than just expanding her jumping arsenal further. "I want to get all the quads one day, but right now I'm really working on my skating skills," she stated. "I'm not too great in artistic yet. We're working on it. The thing is, I still tense up going into my quads. My skating skills won't be as good going into a quad. You can prepare a jump during set up, but you should work on your choreography until then," she admitted.
And yet she skates at high speed, already with beautiful edges, and her programs are a delight to watch. Her skating seems clear, even effortless at times. "I don't think I jump or skate effortlessly," she nonetheless corrected. "If I do look effortless, then it may come from repetition of my programs. I do lots of repetitions with my jumps, so they look more natural."
Her free program, set to a modernized interpretation of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, underlines her speed of skating and the power of her technical elements, but also the harmony of her skate. "This music is very pretty," she said. "Lori (Nichol (who choreographed it) and Carolina (Kostner, who helped presenting it) made a storyline for me to present this music. We're stepping into a new world and I discover the sky and the stars … And then I see stardust as I do my footwork," she explained.
Liu has grown fast into a star on her own. She is now being recognized on the global stage.
"I don't feel I'm getting too much attention, really" she said. "It's cool! Sometimes I'm surprised by my success, but there are always so many new things to learn, so it's really fun," she added.
"Being in Torino was definitely a big learning experience for me," she concluded. "Failure allows you to learn what you need to improve. One big thing I learnt here is that everything matters. Even if you do all your elements, one detail can ruin your score. I will need to focus more on details and get as many points as possible everywhere," she concluded. "All this training is to get to the Olympics, in Beijing in 2022."
Watch Alysa Liu's historic performance from the Junior Grand Prix Final on
Sunday, Dec. 22 at 4 p.m. ET on NBC!Â
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