She's Got It. Alysa Liu wouldn't give her younger self a single piece of advice
Most athletes have plenty to tell their younger selves. Alysa Liu has nothing — and that says everything.
Back The Team: “Alysa, what's the secret to skating with joy and confidence?”
Alysa Liu: “I wouldn't skate unless I loved it.”
Back The Team: “Do you have a favorite quote or mantra?”
Alysa Liu: “Honestly, just YOLO.”
Back The Team: “If you were to give your 13-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?”
Alysa Liu: “Nothing.”
Back The Team: “Really?”
Alysa Liu: “Yep. Nothing. She's got it.”
Sit with that last answer for a second. I've spoken with dozens of Team USA athletes as part of my mission to interview every member of the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic team — and ask everyone some version of that question. Most have something. Work harder. Trust the process. Stop caring what others think.
Alysa Liu has nothing. Not because she had a perfect path, but because she trusts that the path (yes, all of it) was exactly right.
Her thirteen-year-old self was alone in a dorm at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, homeschooled, her entire life designed around the rink. That girl made history: the youngest U.S. national champion ever, the first American woman to land a quad in competition, a 2022 Beijing Olympian who skated her way to bronze at Worlds just weeks after her Olympic debut.
Then she quit. On her own terms. Moved home. Went to birthday parties. Lived a regular life.
Two years ago, she called up her coach and negotiated a return entirely on her own terms. Her own costumes, her own music, her own schedule.
Which makes her first answer — I wouldn't skate unless I loved it — less a piece of advice than a hard-won reality. She learned it the only way you really can: by leaving, and then choosing to come back.
YOLO, it turns out, is a surprisingly sophisticated framework when the person saying it has already walked away at the peak of her career, spent two years living on her own terms, and then chosen to return anyway. It's a philosophy that’s a testament to Liu's radical clarity about what a life is for.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I am interviewing 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to unpack the mental game behind the Games. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Alysa Liu is one of dozens of athletes sharing their unfiltered answers. Follow the journey!
Alysa Liu won individual and team gold at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, becoming the first American woman to win individual Olympic gold in figure skating since 2002. She is the 2025 World Figure Skating Champion and a two-time U.S. national champion.
