The Olympic Games took place this February in Milan, Italy and was a record breaking season for many. Although over thirty countries participated in Figure Skating with up to 147 athletes, America came in first with gold in the women’s divisions for both singles and team events. The US also achieved 8th in the singles male division and 1st in the team events.
America’s double gold medal winning athlete was twenty-year-old Alysa Liu of Oakland, California. Alysa made history by being the first American woman to win gold in 24 years. Not only is this extremely coveted, but she also didn’t have an easy journey.
Alysa started skating at the age of five years old. Encouraged by her single father and four siblings, she began nationally competing at seven and became the youngest U.S national champion at thirteen. However, this extremely grueling and tiring life became too much for Alysa and she retired at sixteen saying “…[that time in my life] was so bad, I just didn’t want to remember it. Practice was so serious. I would cry after falling on every jump. The team I had around me was so strict. I was in fight-or-flight mode all the time…”.
This emotional turmoil caused Alysa to stay away from the skating scene for three years, but she was finally able to announce her return at age nineteen. This was ground breaking for the figure skating world as the sport is seen inside and outside the community as very serious. Alysa however showed that it is okay to make mistakes and in another interview said, “If I didn’t hit rock bottom, I could not have gone up.”
Through finding herself, Alysa was able to be nothing but excited during the Olympics and allowed her to do everything on her own terms. This, she claims, is the biggest reason she did her best and succeeded..
Although Alysa has been widely recognized, she was also part of the USA team including Amber Glenn of Plano, Texas and Isabeau Levito of Mount Laurel, New Jersey. These girls practiced and lived together in the Olympic Village with all teammates describing being on the team as a “magical experience”.
The male division of the USA team consisted of Ilia Malinin of Vienna, Virginia, Andrew Torgahsev of Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, of Hartford, Connecticut. Out of the three, Ilia was able to ensure the team won gold with doing five quads, a very impressive high level amount of moves. Although the highest person on the team individual place was 8th, which was Ilia Malinin, they still had a terrific game. Ilia’s free skate landed him in 8th place however it was controversial. Although he did many amazing skills with ease, he fell twice. Many believe that this was not Ilia’s fault and claim that there was a soft spot in the ice causing five of the final six skaters to fall. Ilia who was originally devastated showing an emotional reaction while still on the ice later stated, “Medals don’t really define who you are.”
Overall, this year was ground breaking for the American team, many teammates were able to practice, and show the world the importance of mental health which is commonly discarded in the athletics community. This year’s USA teams were outspoken and felt the need to share the feeling of many athletes, allowing both teams to do so well and make history.