Alysa Liu Leads U.S. Women After Short Program in Beijing

It's no secret that the women's competition at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 has been shrouded in controversy, but the women of Team USA want to make it clear: they've only been focusing on themselves.
 
"It's obviously a very touchy subject," Mariah Bell said. "I can only speak for myself in that I advocate for clean sport. I think that's the whole idea of the Olympics and our careers in general. And I know for me, I can come here and, amidst all of this, be really proud of my career and how I've led it. And that's really all I'm focusing on."
 
Following the short program, Bell sits in 11th place, while Alysa Liu is eighth and Karen Chen is 13th.
 
Kamila Valieva and Anna Shcherbakova, representing the Russian Olympic Committee, lead the way in first and second place, while Kaori Sakamoto of Japan rounds out the top three.
 
Even without a triple Axel, Liu's performance to "Gypsy Dance II " from Don Quixote was good for 69.50 points. She had decided to eschew the triple Axel in favor of a clean skate, a strategy that ultimately paid off.
 
"I'm really happy," an overjoyed Liu said with a laugh. "Like, really, really happy. I just can't believe I actually did a clean short program out there today. I mean, I can, because I've trained so much, but I can't believe it. I'm just really glad that all my training paid off, because I'm here competing, and my goal of my whole skating career was to compete at the Olympics, so now I can officially say I'm an Olympian."
 
At just 16 years old, Liu is the youngest of member of Team USA in any sport. But the two-time U.S. champion showed poise beyond her years on the world's biggest stage, even among completely unforeseen circumstances.
 
"Fortunately it didn't really affect me," Liu said. "I can't say for the other athletes, but I'm still having fun here, so it hasn't ruined my experience here. And when I compete, it's not in the back of my head, so I'm glad about that. I'm still having a good time here."
 
Liu's Olympic experience has actually been more fun than she'd anticipated. Due to COVID-19, she thought she'd be confined to just her room and the ice.
 
"That's not the case, so I'm really glad," Liu said. "And there's a mall! I didn't know there was a mall. So the village is really fun. I get to see my friends and meet new people."
 
While her experiences off-ice have been fun, Liu is ultimately focused on coming back strong in the free skate.
 
The triple Axel, she says, should make an appearance.
 
"Hopefully I will do it in the free skate," she said. "I've been practicing with it in the free program. It feels pretty good. It doesn't feel perfect, but nothing is ever perfect, so I'll just go with it."
 
Bell, meanwhile, is the veteran of the team at 25 years old. She scored 65.38 points for her short program to "River Flows in You" by Yiruma after a fall on her triple flip-triple toe combination.
 
"I have very mixed emotions about it," Bell said. "I'm bummed with the mistake on that element. I think it cost me quite a bit of points, but I'm happy with how I came back with everything else, and ultimately I just really enjoyed skating on Olympic ice."
 
Bell says she's not sure what exactly happened to cause the fall, but she's ultimately happy with how she rebounded.
 
"If I knew what happened on the toe, I wouldn't have done it," Bell said with a chuckle. "It happens. Ice is slippery. It's something that I've been working on. A flip-toe hasn't always been my friend, but I really attacked it, and it's something that I'll kind of go back and watch and review for the long program, and will do a great one there, I'm sure."
 
While it's always difficult to come back after a fall, Bell used the motivation of being on Olympic ice to help her stay present and keep enjoying herself.
 
"There's a part of you that kind of sinks and it's hard to keep the momentum going, but today, I just really stayed in the moment, and I kept reminding myself that I was on Olympic ice and that's so cool," Bell said. "I just really enjoyed it, and I'm obviously really proud of the rest of the program. I'm bummed about that mistake. I have such mixed feelings about the performance, but overall I'm really proud of how the end of it went. And I can officially say I'm an Olympian, so that's cool too."
 
Chen, a member of the squad that won a medal in the team event last weekend, scored 64.11 points for her short program to "Requiem for a Tower" and "Dream" by Escala, Jennifer Thomas and Hugo Chouinard.
 
Hoping to improve on her triple loop, which she fell on in the team event, she unfortunately had a fall on the same element in her short program.
 
"I'm definitely very disappointed about that," Chen said. "My mind is just stuck on that triple loop. And it's annoying because I made that mistake in the team event, and in my head I'm like, 'Okay, I'm going to fix it this time. It's going to be better.' And if anything, it was worse. So again, definitely disappointed about that, so I need to just kind of think about what went wrong and then move on to the long program."
 
Chen is the only one of the U.S. women with prior Olympic experience, having placed 11th in PyeongChang in 2018. Now four years older and more mature, she's created a bubble for herself in Beijing to block out the noise.
 
"I've been here for quite some time now, and I think every single week and every single day, I'm just refocusing," Chen said. "Like, OK, what are my goals for today? What am I focusing on?"
 
The focus now turns to the free skate on Tuesday, which begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17 (5 a.m. ET). Fans can follow along on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone Competition Central.