Skating comeback queen Alysa Liu says she can get even better for Olympics

TOKYO – Figure skater Alysa Liu feared she might “humiliate” herself on her comeback in 2024, but now she is a world champion and said on April 16 that she can get even better before the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The American was just 16 when she retired from the sport in 2022 after winning world championship bronze and competing at the Beijing Olympics, saying that she had achieved all her goals.

However, she ended her exile in 2024 and crowned her comeback with a dazzling win at the world championships in Boston a little less than three weeks ago.

Now 19, Liu said the victory was “very unexpected” but added that her best was yet to come as she looked ahead to the Milano-Cortina Olympic Games next February.

“I think pretty highly of myself, so it’s not like I’m insecure. I just feel that I can improve so much more. I think I haven’t created my best work yet,” she said on April 16 in Tokyo, where she is preparing to compete for the United States in the season-ending World Team Trophy this week.

She returned to competition only in October and said her achievements had far exceeded her expectations.

“I didn’t think I was going to do well in competition, I needed to get used to it again,” she added.

“I was like, ‘I’ll humiliate myself this season, it’s fine.

“I’ll get used to the feeling of competition again and then next season I’ll come back strong’.

“But it turns out I came back kind of strong this season.”

Liu also said that becoming world champion had not changed her approach with the Winter Olympics on the horizon.

She said: “If I don’t even get sent to the Olympics, that will be fine too – I’ll probably go there