Alysa Liu has decided to take a break while at the very top. Six months after winning gold at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games, the American confirmed on Tuesday that she will not compete at all during the 2026-27 season. She will not take part in the Grand Prix, despite initially being entered for Skate America in November, and will step away from her position as one of the leading figures in international figure skating. She plans to return in 2027-28.
“While everyone is announcing their programs, I’m going to take this opportunity to announce that I won’t be competing this season. I always want to challenge myself in new ways so that my artistry and skating can evolve. It’s important to me that my sport reflects my personal growth. I’m going to take this time to recalibrate, fine-tune things and whatnot. So fear not, I’ll be back and, in the meantime, I’ll be rooting for my teammates near and far. See y’all soon.”
The decision may seem surprising for a 21-year-old Olympic champion with her entire sporting career ahead of her and plenty of time to keep breaking records, but Liu already walked away from figure skating completely after the Beijing 2022 Games, when she was just 16, and spent almost two years away from competition. Her comeback ultimately took her to the world title in 2025 and Olympic gold in 2026. She is now choosing to take another break, although with one important difference from the previous one: she has made it clear that she intends to return.
An elite career since the age of 13
Liu reached the highest level of the sport at a very young age. In 2019, aged 13, she became the youngest US national champion in history and was also one of the first American skaters capable of incorporating elements such as the triple Axel and quadruple jumps. By 16, she had already competed at an Olympic Games and won a world bronze medal. Shortly afterwards, she decided to retire.
“Now that I’ve finally accomplished my goals in skating, I’m going to be moving on with my life,” she explained at the time. Liu had started skating at the age of five and would later acknowledge that the demands of the sport had consumed virtually her entire adolescence. “I was so immersed in skating that I didn’t really do much else. Skating takes up almost your entire life.”
The American used that retirement to do precisely the things she had been unable to do during the first stage of her sporting career. She travelled, spent more time with family and friends, trekked to Everest Base Camp and began studying Psychology at UCLA. “It was a pivotal time in my life. I was 16 and college was coming up. There were so many things I wanted to do.”
She also acknowledged that quitting had been “one of the best decisions” of her life. “I needed to try so many other things and at the time I thought the only way to do that was to leave because I really felt trapped.” That is particularly relevant now because her comeback was not the result of an Olympic plan or pressure to return to competition. Liu simply started skating again and discovered that she could enjoy it in a different way. She began to free herself from that feeling of being “trapped”.
She came back for fun and ended up winning everything
Liu described those first sessions back on the ice as a search for “little dopamine hits”. In March 2024, she eventually announced her official return. “It was good for me to take some time away from skating and I’m beyond excited to begin skating again with my newly found perspective.”
The results came immediately. In her first full season after returning, she won the 2025 World Championships. A year later, she arrived at Milano Cortina and first won gold with the United States in the team event before claiming the women’s individual title, becoming the first American woman to win the individual Olympic crown since Sarah Hughes at Salt Lake City 2002.
Success also changed her profile away from the ice. After the Games came more commercial commitments, public appearances and sponsorship deals. Liu even admitted that she was concerned about what returning to everyday life would feel like after the impact of winning Olympic gold. “I’m scared it won’t feel like home anymore because, all of a sudden, everyone’s going to know me.”
Since Milano Cortina, she has not competed in an official event. She skipped the World Championships in March and her only appearances on the ice came during the Stars on Ice tour in April and May. The summer, normally the period when skaters prepare their programmes for the following season, also offered little room between other commitments and a family holiday Liu had already planned.
She had already begun to question whether she would compete in 2026-27. “I will have to take a look at everything, because I haven’t been able to talk with my coaches and whatnot,” she told USA Today in May. Her initial intention was still to compete, but only if she had enough time and preparation to do so properly.
The ISU expected her at Skate America
The decision also represents a change from the original plans for the international season. The ISU had included Liu in Skate America 2026, one of the Grand Prix events scheduled for November. She will now compete neither there nor anywhere else on the circuit.
Her absence will not be an isolated case following Milano Cortina. Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the American Olympic champions in ice dance, have also announced that they will not compete during the 2026-27 season. The seasons immediately following an Olympic Games offer athletes a window that is difficult to find during the rest of the Olympic cycle: anyone returning in 2027 will still have three seasons before the 2030 Games.
Simone Biles, Carlos Alcaraz…
Pressure, expectations and mental control are crucial in disciplines where movements have to become almost automatic before being performed on stages as big as the Olympic Games. The psychological toll can be significant. Liu is not the only example: Simone Biles has experienced it in gymnastics. Carlos Alcaraz currently faces something similar, needing occasional periods of complete disconnection during the season, unlike rivals who continue training virtually until the end of the year.
Perhaps these breaks, which can still seem surprising today, will increasingly become part of the path to success for athletes whose minds are asking for room to breathe, to enjoy the same leisure activities as other people their age and, ultimately, to take off the sporting hero costume for a while and simply be a normal young person.
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