Alysa Liu announces break from skating after historic Olympic win

Alysa Liu has announced she is taking a break and revealed her future plans in a new update.

The Olympic gold medalist told fans she will be taking the 2026-27 skating season off and will not take part in any competitions.

“While people are announcing programs, imma take this time to announce that I will not be competing this season,” she explained in a post on Instagram.

“I always want to challenge myself in new ways, so my artistry & skating can evolve. It’s important to me that my sport reflects my personal growth. I’m gonna take the time to recalibrate, fine-tune things & whatnot. So fear not, I’ll be back, & in the meantime I’ll be rooting for my teammates near & far. See yall soon!!”

In a follow-up interview with NBC Sports on Tuesday (25 August) the athlete said she was planning on working on her ‘overall artistry, spins, jumps, everything’ during her break.

“I just felt this was right. So I’m trusting my instincts,” she said.

The figure skating star’s announcement marks her latest career move after she made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and finished seventh.

A few months later, she won bronze at the world titles before ‘retiring’ from the sport at the young age of 16. She was already a two-time US national champion by that point.

"I am here to announce that I am retiring from skating," she wrote on Instagram in 2022.

"I started skating when I was five so that's about 11 years on the ice and it's been an insane 11 years.

"A lot of good and a lot of bad but that's just how it is. I've made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I'll have for the rest of my life. I honestly never thought I would've accomplished as much."

But the retirement didn’t last long and she made a grand return to the Olympics earlier this year in Milan.

She became the first American woman to win an individual medal since Sasha Cohen in 2006 and the first American gold medalist since Sarah Hughes in 2002.

Speaking about her upcoming temporary hiatus, Liu explained further: “I really want to improve my skating, and I wanted to take the time to do that for myself and just to evolve and then I’ll be back after that is done. But I’ll still be cheering on all my competitors and my teammates, and I’m really excited.”

She continued: “Logically and emotionally and physically, this just makes the most sense. I will miss seeing the international competitors at all the international (competitions), but there will be more, so it’s fine.”

Liu explained that her coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, were part of the decision.

“I came to them, and they totally understood where I was coming from,” Liu said. “I did have to explain a little bit, but they didn’t think I needed to justify my reason for it or anything. So it was really chill.”

Following her groundbreaking performance at the Olympics, she has also become a pop culture fixture. She appeared in a music video for the Laufey, dominated a brand new bleached hairstyle trend known as 'halo hair', and attended the Louis Vuitton show at Paris Fashion Week.