TINY TITAN
Alysa Liu is forging her own path to the Olympics as the youngest competitor in the U.S. figure skating championships
OAKLAND >> Although she stands just 4-feet-7, Alysa Liu is difficult to miss at the Oakland Ice Center where she reels off seniorlevel triple jumps as casually as if she was talking on a smartphone.
Meet the Bay Area’s next potential figure skating star.
Did we mention she’s only 12?
Liu heads into the U.S. championships Sunday and Tuesday in San Jose as one of the favorites in the women’s junior division although she is the youngest in the competition.
If she wins, Liu won’t be eligible to represent the United States at the 2018 Junior World Championships because she missed the minimum-age cutoff by a month. But that’s OK for the oldest of five children being raised by a single father who emigrated to the United States from China in 1989.
Liu is used to the unconventional route. She and her four siblings — a 9-year-old sister and 8-year-old triplets — were conceived through anonymous egg donors and surrogate moms.
Oakland lawyer Arthur Liu, 53, is rearing the children with the help of his partner and a community of friends, he said. But every day is a manic foot race, particularly with a skater on the verge of national attention and his busy law practice.
He rises at 4:30 a.m. to clean and do laundry at the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Richmond that Liu recently bought to accommodate his large family. Then it’s preparing breakfast and snacks for the three girls and two boys.
He drops the younger ones at school in Albany, where the family lived un-
“She was walking on the ice right away. Even in the first session, she was chasing adults, talking to them, making friends.”
— Arthur Liu, 53, father of Alysa Liu
til the recent move. Then Liu takes Alysa to the rink to train for two to three hours in the morning. After skating with her coach, the daughter joins her dad at his law office in downtown Oakland. She has a cubicle to do her classwork. Alysa returns to the rink for two more hours of training in the afternoon.
The outgoing girl attended Chinese school for about three years before her father enrolled her in the Oakland School for the Arts, which has a figure skating emphasis. But Alysa missed too much time because of traveling to competitions.
So two years ago, Liu started homeschooling her through California Connections Academy, an online program used by many elite skaters such as Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou and Fremont’s Karen Chen.
Alysa likes her setup. “It’s quiet most of the time,” she said of the law office. “There is nobody trying to disturb me so I can focus on my work. Sometimes it can get a little difficult when I am having trouble and he’s with clients and I really need him.”
The arrangement gives the budding skater a chance to plan her life around the sport she loves.
Laura Lipetsky, her coach, took her protege to the University of Delaware’s ice rinks this year for a biomechanical analysis researchers have created to help elite American skaters improve their jump techniques.
The coach also sent Alysa to Los Angeles to work with famed choreographer Cindy Stuart, who has done the Disney on Ice shows and Lipetsky’s programs when she was little.
“I like how I am different” from other kids, Alysa said.
Arthur Liu recalled how his daughter started asking questions about her familial background at an early age.
“Daddy, why do I look different?” she would ask. “I don’t look Chinese.”
The questions were more detailed two years ago, so Liu finally explained it to her.
“You have a biological mother, you have a surrogate mother,” he said.
Alysa also has a strong female figure in Lipetsky, a former national-level skater who graduated from Cal. The two have been skating together since Alysa was 5½.
“I care about her so much, I give everything that I can to her because she only gets one shot,” Lipetsky said. “She reminds me of someone that I was growing up.”
As a Michelle Kwan fan himself, Liu brought his oldest child to a Saturday public session seven years ago because he thought his active girl might enjoy it.
“She was walking on the ice right away,” said Liu, who at the time worked two blocks from the rink. “Even in the first session, she was chasing adults, talking to them, making friends.”
He enrolled Alysa in a learn-to-skate program right away. Lipetsky saw potential and encouraged Liu to begin private lessons.
Lipetsky, as the daughter of Russian immigrants who had to scrape by to pay for a career that included coaching from the renowned Frank Carroll and 1976 Olympian Wendy Burge Dickinson, felt a strong connection to Alysa.
She remembered other coaches who would stop as soon as the 30-minute paid session ended. Carroll, on the other hand, created a nurturing environment for a kid who loved skating. She has tried to follow his example.
Liu’s other kids skate on weekends for fun but have no interest in pursuing it competitively. Dad even tried it twice but hurt himself each time. That was that.
The family’s weekends, though, revolve around skating. They spend an hour Saturday at the Oakland rink before Alysa goes to ballet classes. The Lius drive to Vacaville on Sundays for two hours of practice because the Oakland rink isn’t available for freestyle skating.
Liu and Lipetsky try to make it fun for Alysa, who thrives on the challenges. The father makes sure his eldest interacts with kids her own age with play dates and sleepovers.
So far, the formula works. Two years ago, 10-year-old Alysa became the youngest ever to win an intermediatelevel national title.
Last year, she placed fourth in the novice division while attempting seven triple jumps.
Alysa won a silver medal in her first international competition in August before she turned 12 at the Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy in Hong Kong. She then won the junior competition at the U.S. Challenge Skate in September and finished first last month at Pacific Sectionals to put her on a trajectory to become as big or bigger than San Jose Olympian Polina Edmunds and Chen, who are competing for 2018 Winter Games berths this week at SAP Center.
“She has advanced beyond my imagination,” her father said. “She wants to compete in the Olympics and the World Championships. She knows what she wants.”
Although skating is an unforgiving sport, the adults are not discouraging Alysa from thinking about the big picture. She will be 16 by the time the 2022 Olympics in Beijing are held.
“I can imagine wanting to go there and be at that level,” Alysa said. “If I ever imagine myself at the Olympics, I imagine myself this size, this face, and the same skating. Just being at a bigger ice rink.”
It’s impossible to predict whether Liu will make it all the way. The sport is littered with stolen dreams.
Growth is one factor that could alter Alysa’s plans. Injuries also have undermined many promising careers. The sport’s scoring system awards big jumpers, forcing athletes to attempt more difficult programs that increase the injury risk.
Liu’s long program, skated to a melody from “Les Miserables,” includes seven triple jumps — two in combinations. She also ends the ambitious performance with a double axel and double toe combination.
All of these spectacular jumps are executed in the second half of the program because they earn more points. It’s a strategy known as “backloading” that is being advanced by the top Russians. Late jumps score higher because it is more difficult to execute them when tired.
Liu wants to keep pace with the Russians and Japanese who also are mastering triple axels and quads.
Lipetsky is using a harness to help Alysa learn the axel, the only triple jump she does not include in competition. The axel is the most difficult jump in the sport because it is an extra one-half rotation.
“I love that there are endless things to learn,” said Alysa, who skipped first grade. “You can learn every single day something new.”
What she loves the most is jumping. Spinning, she said, takes too long.
“They take a lot of work,” Alysa added. “They’re harder than jumps for me actually because you have to stretch and stretching really isn’t my thing.”
OK, but Liu has been earning maximum points for her mature spins.
Everything about her skating is more sophisticated this season. Liu’s short program is performed to Spanish flamenco music whereas last season she skated to an Addams Family repertoire.
Liu helps his daughter and her coach select the music. They rely on a Sacramento dressmaker to design the costumes.
In a sport populated with moms calling the shots, Liu stands out.
“I’m the mom and the dad — I’m all she has,” he said.
He left China after the unrest highlighted by the Tiananmen Square standoff in the spring of 1989. Liu had studied and taught English in college in China. He earned a master’s of business administration at Cal State East Bay before getting a degree at UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.
Alysa shares her father’s academic sensibility. The eighth-grader studies high school-level Mandarin, which is her favorite subject.
“Ni hao wo huabing,” she said.
How are you? I am a figure skater.
That will work just fine for the Beijing Games.