LIU LEAPS WAY TO STIRRING VICTORY
Richmond 12-year-old executes nine jumps in the second half of her free skate in capturing the junior women’s title
SAN JOSE >> Too bad 12-year-olds can’t go to the Olympics.
Otherwise, Richmond’s Alysa Liu might be on her way to Pyeongchang, South Korea, after a stirring performance Tuesday night at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at SAP Center.
Liu, the oldest of five kids reared by a single father, rocked the arena with nine jumps in the second half of her free skate to “Les Miserables.”
The strategy of executing the jumps in the back end of the 4-plus-minute program gave her bonus points and led to a whopping 184.16 points to easily win the junior women’s title.
It’s the second-highest total at a U.S. championships since the new point system was implemented in 2006, and was 18 points better than Pooja Kalyan of Arkansas. Amber Glenn scored 186.51 points in 2014 for the record.
And it all came together as Liu fought off a cold and sore throat.
“I was a little bit worried, but I knew she was so well prepared,” coach Laura Lipetsky said.
The performance might have been good enough to upstage the senior women, who began competing for Olympic berths Wednesday with the short program.
Liu, though, doesn’t turn 13 until August, a month too late to represent the United States at the Junior World Championships in March in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“I hope they change it that no matter what age you are you can go,” said Liu, the youngest athlete in the event.
No one could blame her for wishful thinking. But the girl was excited to learn that she gets to perform Sunday in the exhibition gala that will end the nine-day championships.
Also, she’ll no doubt get international assignments in the spring as American officials hope Liu can be groomed as a potential star for the 2020 Olympics in Beijing.
A lot can happen until then, but for the moment Liu has the magic touch with beautiful jumping and lyrical lines. Katarina Wolfkostin and partner Howard Zhao skate at Solar4America Ice in San Jose. They took first place in the free dance on Tuesday.
“She’s amazing for her age,” said Ting Cui, who was third. “She’s so happy and fun in a tiny body.”
The 4-foot-7 Liu struggled to sleep Monday night with a sore throat and a fever. Her father, Arthur Liu, gave his oldest child wheatgrass juice.
The verdict? “It’s gross,” said Liu, who represents the St. Moritz Skating Club of Oakland.
She also drank lemon juice with honey but the cold persisted. Just before skating the father gave her “Chinese medicine” and cough drops.
It seemed to do the trick as Liu completed seven triple jumps and two double axels. She got extra points on every maneuver except for a triple flip-single looptriple salchow.
Liu, though, wants more. She and her coach closely follow the Russians, particularly two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva.
Lipetsky, though, pointed to a Japanese junior skater who has landed a triple axel-triple toe in combination.
“We’re just going to keep pushing it,” she said.
Lily Sun of San Mateo struggled on her jumps to place ninth.
• Sarah Feng of Fremont tried singles and ice dancing before drifting into the pairs arena. It turned out to be a good move as she and partner TJ Nyman placed second in the junior pairs competition.
Now the couple has a chance to advance to the 2018 Junior World Championships in March in Sofia, Bulgaria. The team will be announced Saturday night.
Feng and Nyman scored 155.57 points after the free skate Tuesday to finish second to Texans Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov, who dominated the competition with a total of 173.31 points.
• In the novice ice dance, Gianna Buckley and Jeffrey Chen of Fremont had a lackluster free dance and fell to second place overall after leading the competition.
“After this, I feel like I’ve actually accomplished something,” Chen said, “and that all the hard work that’s been leading up to this has really, actually meant something.”