Bay Space native Alysa Liu, a two-time United States nationwide determine skating champion and 2022 Winter Olympics participant, introduced her retirement at age 16 on Saturday.
In an Instagram submit, Liu mentioned she began skating when she was 5 years previous, she “by no means thought I might have completed a lot,” and “now that i’m lastly executed with my objectives in skating I’m going to be transferring on with my life.”
“This skating factor has taught me much more about life than I anticipated,” Liu mentioned in her Instagram submit. “I’m actually glad I skated.”
Liu received United States girls’s singles championships in Detroit in 2019 and in Greensboro in 2020 and took dwelling a bronze medal on the 2020 girls’s singles championship in Tallin, Estonia.
Liu missed the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang as a result of she was too younger to take part and was practically unable to partake within the 2022 Video games in Beijing as a consequence of a constructive COVID-19 take a look at on the U.S. Championships in Nashville in January.
The gifted skater was compelled to withdraw from the qualifying competitors and petition to hitch the US workforce. Her petition was profitable and Liu turned the youngest athlete to signify the nation on the 2022 Winter Olympics.
After under-rotating her triple axel throughout her Olympic program, Liu completed seventh within the free skate and total.
“I’m actually glad I went for every thing and didn’t fall,” Liu informed reporters on the Olympics. “I’m nonetheless in shock at how properly I did. I labored so much on this and I’m glad I did two clear packages. I’m making a variety of reminiscences right here.”
Born in Clovis, California, Liu attended the Oakland College for the Arts earlier than she started homeschooling so she might journey to extra competitions. Liu homeschooled by California Connections Academy, a web based program utilized by many elite skaters akin to Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou and Fremont’s Karen Chen.