Liu having a blast amid figure skating controversy
BEIJING — The 2022 Winter Olympics will likely be remembered as both controversial and isolating. They’ve featured political tensions and severe COVID-19 restrictions. Questions about the whereabouts of Peng Shuai and forced labor camps in Xinjiang. Plexiglass barriers. A Russian doping scandal. Complaints from athletes about quality of food and quarantine conditions.
But you wouldn’t know any of that from talking with 16-year-old figure skater Alysa Liu.
“ITS BEEN SO FUN SO FAR,” she wrote on Instagram last week.
The youngest athlete on Team USA in Beijing, Liu said she’s been having a blast in her first trip to the Games, despite all the negativity surrounding them. She’s made new friends from other countries, bought souvenirs for friends back home, participated in multiple snowball fights and raved about the peach juice available in the Olympic village.
“I thought because of COVID and everything, I would just be in my room, and then (at the rink). But that’s not the case,” Liu said after her short program Tuesday night.
“And there’s, like, a mall (at the Olympic village). I didn’t know there was a mall. I found out when I got here. I was like, ‘there’s a mall?’ I think they told us there was a mall, but I obviously didn’t hear that. So the village is really fun.”
Liu said she’s also been surprised by how many games are available in the village, including a mini basketball arcade game outside their Team USA apartment, and cornhole boards outside of Team Canada’s.
That Liu skated well in her short program Tuesday night was just an added bonus.
A two-time U.S. champion who was knocked out of this year’s national championships by a positive COVID-19 test, Liu finished eighth in the first half of the women’s individual competition, leaving her as the highest-ranked
American in the field.
“I’m really glad I did a clean short program,” Liu said afterwards. “I would also be fine if I didn’t do a clean short, but I’m glad I did a clean short program.”
Naturally, she had a huge smile when she stepped onto the ice, and perhaps an even larger one when she left.
Liu’s outlook has offered a rare glimpse of the excitement that usually permeates the Olympics but has been harder to come by in Beijing. And it hasn’t been dampened by what’s happening in Liu’s own event with Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who has been permitted to compete despite testing positive for a banned substance, sparking international backlash.
Liu admitted that “it does suck” that Valieva’s case led to the cancellation of the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event, where her teammates were scheduled to receive silver medals. But she understands it. And while the Valieva saga continues to loom over her event, she said it hasn’t tarnished her Olympic debut.
“I’m still having fun here,” Liu said. “It hasn’t ruined my experience here.”