By DAVE SKRETTA | AP Sports Writer
East Bay-raised U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu, a member of the 2022 Olympic team, is making a comeback after nearly two years in retirement.
Still only 18 years old, Liu stepped away after competing at the Beijing Games and winning the bronze medal at the world championships. She said at the time she had accomplished all of her goals and was satisfied with her career, making her the first U.S. skater since Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes in 2002 to not attempt to make a second Winter Games.
Liu did not say in a statement released by U.S. Figure Skating on Friday whether she would try to make the team for the 2026 Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Liu only said that she aimed to compete during the 2024-25 season.
“It was good for me to take time off,” she said. “I am beyond excited to begin skating again with my newly found perspective.”
Liu, who was born in Clovis and raised in Fremont, became the youngest skater in history to land a triple axel in international competition when she did it at the age of 12 in 2018. She was the first American to land a quad lutz when she did it the following year and also became the youngest U.S. champion in 2019, when the high-flying teen triumphed at just 13 years old.
It was Liu’s prolific jumping ability that made her America’s best chance of competing with the Russian women, the best in the world for their ability to land quads. But Liu was forced to withdraw from the 2022 U.S. championships after she tested positive for COVID-19, and that may have played a role in some minor mistakes during the Beijing Olympics.
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Liu was in eighth after the short program before a better free skate put her seventh overall. She has since been elevated to sixth following the disqualification of Russian skater Kamila Valieva for a positive drug test taken before the Olympics.
“We are very excited about Alysa’s return,” said Justin Dillon, U.S. Figure Skating’s senior director of high performance. “We look forward to supporting Alysa in her career as she seeks to build on the success she has already achieved in recent seasons.”