LET’S talk about Granger’s favorite gold medalist from the Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu, the women’s gold medal figure skater of the Winter Olympics. What is her story? Who even is she? Why do people like her, and how did she get invited to skate for the Olympics?
Alysa Liu is a 20-year-old girl who retired from figure skating at the age of 16, and later, when she was 18, she wanted to get back into figure skating.
Alysa had called her coach to say she wanted to return to the ice, but as a competitive figure skater. Her coach wasn’t sure she should do that since she had taken a 2.5-year break.
She eventually convinced her coach to let her come back as a competitive figure skater. When he was coaching her, he noticed she had come back as a new person. When reporters interviewed Alysa, they would talk about her practices and how she would constantly want to try again when she struggled to get something done right. Alysa responded with, “I love struggling, actually, it makes me feel alive.”
“I’ve been seeing reels about this Alysa Liu girl, and I saw how she was able to get lots of reps in before the winter Olympics even started, and how she pushed herself to keep on going even if she was struggling. You can tell her getting the extra reps helped her become a real smooth figure skater, with every jump it’s a smooth spin and landing,” Kota Barber (11) said.
At the winter Olympics, Alysa Liu looked a bit off to people, with her hair dyed like a raccoon’s tail and a smiley piercing. A lot of people did not like her appearance, because she did not look professional at all. But her appearance did not matter in the end; with all her hard work, she was able to bring it to the skating rink.
“I didn’t really watch the Olympics, but I have seen reels about Alysa Liu. She encourages me to be more motivated to do what I like. Although it was competitive, she still smiled and showed she wanted to be there and try her best, even if she might have gotten docked points from her appearance,” Litzi Santin (11) said.
Before the judges tallied the final scores for the podium, Alysa was in third place; she was only 2.12 points away from first place. Once the judges entered the final points, Alysa had a score of 226.79, placing her first. Alysa was shocked to hear she had won first place, for she was there to skate for herself and to have fun no matter the outcome.
“Figure skating has never really caught my eye before, but after watching reels about Alysa Liu, I find the sport really interesting. I find her to have great sportsmanship, even though others around her didn’t get first place, she still cheered them on for getting on the podium,” Kesaia Shelton (9) said.
