HannahPeck

Turn on any news channel, open any social media app and you’ll be met with the comeback story – Alysa Liu. At just 20 years old, Liu skated away with 2 Gold medals after the 2026 Winter Olympics, but the kicker is this: she retired at the young age of 16. While her story is unique, her message resonates with us all. 

The Early Years: Alysa Liu started skating when she was 5, and not only was she good, she was exceptional. At the young age of 13, Alysa became the youngest U.S. women’s figure skating champion. To do so, she broke a two decade old record and landed a triple axel and a quad jump in the same program. At just 13, she was revered as a prodigy. 

In 2022, Liu won bronze during the 2022 World Championships in France, making her the first American woman to make the podium in six years. That same year, she ended up 7th in the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

But behind every win, she was suffering. Her practices were serious and the team around her even stricter. Alysa told Rolling Stone “I was in fight-or-flight mode all the time. I didn’t enjoy being at the rink from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, but I skated every day because I was scared that I would lose all my jumps and lose my abilities if I took a day off. And [since] every day was the same, I can’t recall certain years or stuff like that. I missed birthdays and holidays, so that also makes the timeline a little bit sketchy for me.”

As her lifestyle continued to wear and tear at her mentally and emotionally, she knew she needed a change. So shortly after those 2022 Winter Olympics, Alysa announced her retirement on Instagram shocking not only the figure skating community, but also her coaches and parents who she neglected to tell beforehand. 

Stepping Away: Alysa took two years off skating with no set intention of coming back. She filled her time with friends, studying, exploring LA – a true ‘normal’ teenager experience. 

Yet on a ski trip with friends, she felt an adrenaline rush she hadn’t felt since skating. It was enough to spark a desire to get back on the ice. She found an old pair of skates and went to work – her love and joy for the sport still there. 

A New Way to Skate: She called an old coach and told him she wanted to compete again. With new boundaries and a new mindset, Liu started skating again. The new rules? She picks her regimen, she picks her costumes, her music, what she eats, and everything in between. 

She wanted to do things her way. So much so that “she insists her social life takes priority over training, saying she will choose time with friends even if it affects her performance.”

The time away and her newfound autonomy allowed her to realize how to be an elite level athlete and not allow it to consume her life. Her first year back, Liu won the 2025 World Championships. Proving she was not only still an elite athlete, but on her way back to the U.S. Olympic Team. 

In 2026, she went into the Olympic Games not with the goal to win a medal, but to have fun and showcase her art. 

The result? Two gold medals, but more importantly, a healthy mindset.

For Liu, winning wasn’t the end goal. Her win wasn’t built on working harder or pushing her body past a healthy point or even sacrificing other areas of her life – it was built on taking a break, rediscovering joy, and learning that success isn’t earned at the cost of your well-being.

While we all aren’t gold medalists, it would be a shame to miss what Alysa is demonstrating for the world – how to experience health in your life. 

Now it’s not that you can’t love your job, excel at it, push yourself to your limits, but it can’t consume you. It’s important to take time to rest, to breathe, to spend with friends, to travel, to relax. Your job, your sport, your hobbies aren’t meant to consume you. 

And if you need a break, you should take one. 

And a break is exactly what Alysa is taking after the Olympics. This week she announced she won’t be competing at 2026 World Championships in Prague, instead choosing to rest after the Olympic season. Even now, Liu is reminding us that sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break.