How East Bay figure skater Liu is transforming a year before Olympics
OAKLAND >> Alysa Liu no longer looks like the tiny figure skater with the ohmy-gosh expressions and head-spinning jumps.
The Richmond teen appears to have stepped off the stage of Extreme Makeover
as she prepares to defend her U.S. figure skating title this week in Las Vegas.
The skater with the biggest jumps ever performed by an American woman has undergone a host of changes in the past year, leading to new expectations for her only major competition of the season.
“The goal is to present a new Alysa,” said Massimo Scali, one of her new coaches. “A mature, beautiful, elegant, secure skater.”
Liu, the two-time reigning and youngest-ever senior U.S. champion, has experienced a challenging year that included changing coaches, searching for open ice rinks because of COVID-19 restrictions and experiencing a growth spurt.
Then she tumbled in late October trying to land a triple axel jump during practice in Las Vegas. Liu, 15, said she suffered a right hip injury after smacking the ice hard on the 3 1/2-rotation jump.
She did not complete her signature triple jumps at the team-only Las Vegas Invitational the day after the fall.
“I wanted to compete anyway with doubles,” she said. “It hurt.”
Liu said the injury has healed after forgoing triple jumps for about a month. She recently started working on triple axels but plans to compete for her third consecutive U.S. title without big jumps that catapulted her to American figure skating fame.
Liu said she shelved two triple axels and a quadruple lutz in the free skate in favor of a more balanced program that emphasizes her budding artistic side.
As a result, Liu is not the favorite heading into the women’s short program today at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which moved from San Jose because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The free skate is scheduled for Friday at Orleans Arena.
The championships arguably will be Liu’s first real competition since she finished third at the 2020 Junior World Championships last March.
In a year in which she has grown three to four inches Liu also has changed coaches.
Laura Lipetsky of Alameda had coached Liu since age 5. But since June, Liu has trained with Scali, a three-time Olympic ice dancer for Italy. They added four-time U.S. champion Jeremy Abbott to the team later in the year, and Toronto-based coach Lee Barkell serves as a consultant.
“Laura gave her a great foundation and she created Alysa Liu,” Abbott said. “We’re just taking the work she has done and expanding on that.”
Scali and Abbott are guiding Liu through a growth spurt that changed the physics of her jumping. Liu, who was still shorter than 5 feet tall when winning her two senior titles, said the physical changes initially caused problems.
“I wasn’t prepared,” she said. “I knew I would eventually grow. I didn’t want to believe it.”
Scali said his pupil has become more comfortable with her growth heading into the U.S. championships.
“I always tell her she doesn’t look like a junior skater anymore,” Scali said. “She is ready to arrive on the senior scene, and not just nationals but international.”
Trying to adjust to the growing body became more challenging as public health restrictions limited the chance to practice.
Over the past four years, Liu practically lived at the Oakland Ice Center, where she trained, did her schoolwork and ate many of her meals. The downtown Oakland facility was not always open in 2020, following state and Alameda County health directives.
Liu spent much of the spring in Wilmington, Del., after the world championships, living in an Airbnb rental and training alone at a local rink.
After returning to the Bay Area in late May, Liu shuttled between Oakland and San Francisco rinks.
She and Scali met Abbot, a twotime Olympian who had been camping across the country during the pandemic, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center.
Abbott, 35, said while on a brief stop in San Francisco he heard the rink was open and popped in to skate for fun. He arrived at the rink just as Liu and Scali began their session. The chance meeting turned into a full-time job for Abbott, who is focused on honing Liu’s technique.
Abbott’s presence was not the only lucky coincidence when training in San Francisco. Liu also has started receiving counsel from 1988 Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano, who skates at the Yerba Buena rink.
Liu hardly competed this season because the pandemic led to the cancellation of the Junior Grand Prix circuit. And she might not have any competitions after the U.S. championships with the World Junior Championships also canceled because of COVID-19 issues.
However, the slowdown might have come at the optimal time with the Winter Olympics in Beijing only a year away. Liu will be eligible to compete on the senior international circuit next season when she turns 16 in August.
Instead of focusing on the jumps that gave Liu a distinct scoring advantage over the rest of the U.S. women, she hopes to showcase skating elegance.
Liu probably will need exquisite skating skills combined with technically superior jumps next season to compete against the army of Russians who dominate the sport.
Scali said her improved skating skills and commanding triple jumps and double axels should be good enough to challenge for another title. Liu has the chance to become the first woman since Michelle Kwan to win three consecutive U.S. championships. Kwan won eight in a row from 1998-2005.