Liu going for her third U.S. title in Las Vegas competition
Two-time defending national champion Alysa Liu, the first U.S. woman to land two triple axels in a free skate and the first to land a quadruple jump, is forgoing the technically difficult moves this week at the U.S. Figure Skating championships.
Liu, of Richmond, told the Bay Area News Group she plans to complete seven triple jumps and two double axels in the long program in Las Vegas. The women’s short program is scheduled for Thursday and the free skate the next day at Orleans Arena.
At 15, she is trying to become the first three-time champion since Michelle Kwan won eight consecutive titles from 1998-2005.
The championships were moved from SAP Center in San Jose to Las Vegas because of COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County. San Jose will instead play host to the prestigious competition in 2023 -- the year after the Beijing Winter Games.
Liu became a sensation in American figure
skating in 2019 by becoming the youngest ever to win a U. S. singles title when she was 13.
She repeated the performance last year with highscoring triple axels to outpace runner-up Mariah Bell and 2018 Olympian Bradie Tennell, who was third.
Her short routine this season incorporates music from Federico Fellini’s movie “La Strada.”
The long program will be performed to “The Storm,” a work by the Hungarian Balázs Havasi.
Liu, who said she has grown 3 or 4 inches in the past year, had planned to include a triple axel in her short program and two triple axels and quadruple lutz in the free skate.
But it is not surprising she has scaled back her programs.
She said she has not been able to prepare as in the past because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“It has been a weird year at the least,” she said. “I didn’t skate as much. I didn’t really train.”
She also left her coach since age 5, Laura Lipetsky, in June.
She now trains with threetime Olympic ice dancer Massimo Scali of Italy and fourtime U. S. champion Jeremy Abbott. Famed Canadian choreographer Lori Nichol helps create Liu’s routines.
Scali said Liu wants to show next week that she is equally skilled as an artistic skater as a big jumper. He said the plan is to incorporate the triple axels and quadruple jumps into programs for the 2021-22 season, when Liu will be age- eligible to compete on the senior international circuit that culminates with the 2022 Winter Olympics.
“This year, she doesn’t need big jumps to win,” Scali said. “She is now a full package skater.”