Alyssa Liu

Cementing a new definition for blue ribbons

“If there was no one else on earth, I would still skate.” - Alyssa Liu

Alyssa Liu should be a graduate class at Harvard. A class in finding your purpose. A class in childrearing. A class in the value of winning and the value of walking away. A class in reward. I could go on, but you get the drift.

She started skating when she was very young. A driven father, yes, but loving more than driven. In his 60 Minutes interview after her return, he smiled when asked how it felt when she told him she didn’t want him involved anymore. He admitted it hurt a little. How honest is that. And then he said it was her life, she should do what she wants, and he would support her. Seeing him at the Olympics cheering her on was all anyone needed to see. Watch the interview if you haven’t. It will redefine so many things in your approach to winning and purpose.

Elissa’s father, watching the award ceremony and the National Anthem. He escaped China and raised five children through surrogates. Well done.

Alyssa was wildly successful as a child. She went to the Olympics and finished around eleventh or twelfth. Then she quit. Later she said she did not enjoy it. Too many people told her what to wear, what music to skate to, what to eat, how to move, who to be. So she left to find herself.

And how did she find herself? She tried a million different things. Yes, she had the financial freedom to do that. That matters. But stay with the lesson.

One day skiing, she realized she missed the way her body felt on the ice. The speed. The dance. The edge. She missed the art of it. She wanted to skate again. Only with different rules.

She returned older and wiser. She called her coaches, who did not see much hope. And then she set conditions.

She picks the music.

She controls how she looks.

She eats what she wants. No more starvation.

Choreography is collaborative.

She decides when she needs a break.

And her father stays out of her art. “I love you, Dad, but you’re not allowed back in.”

She came back for joy. Not for a medal. Not for prestige. For joy.

Don’t get me wrong. She worked hard. Harder than I have ever worked in my life. And, she stayed longer on the rink practicing. But she also took time off. Ate what she wanted. Picked her own music.

And, then the pressure hype began. 60 Minutes. Interviews. Editorials. Pressure. She scoffed at them all. When asked about the pressure of gold, she said she felt none. That was not the point. She just wanted to skate in front of people. Even if she fell and they were mad, she liked getting a reaction. She liked that she was alive out there.

After winning gold, she skated to the camera and said, “That’s what I’m fucking talking about.” Not exactly the script for women’s figure skating. And the hair. The Hunger Games energy. In a sport where the look is part of the judging. I doubt that would have survived a committee.

We say it is about the journey, not the finish line. It is a lovely phrase. But Alyssa showed us what that actually means in specifics.

The journey was quitting when the medal felt empty. The journey was reclaiming her body. The journey was setting boundaries with her father. The journey was choosing her own music, eating real food, resting when she needed to, skating for the love of movement instead of the approval of judges.

By the time she stood on that podium, the gold was not the headline. The headline was that she had already won back herself.

I will watch her long program from the 2026 Olympics once a week for the next year. I will watch the freedom in her body. I will watch the ownership. I will try to chip away at the walls I have built around myself over decades. No one else’s fault. Mine.

And I see something else now. Grace is not found in lithe bodies. It is not found in soft spoken demurity. It is not found in shrinking yourself to fit a judging sheet. Grace is found in accepting who you are when you are truly on your own pathway and loving it.

I thank her for her joy. I thank her for her hair. I thank her for her flexibility and her new definition for grace and winning.