Alysa Liu has returned to skating to become an Olympic favorite

Alysa Liu Quit Figure Skating to Focus on 'Living' Life. Now She's ‘More Excited’ Than Ever About the 2026 Olympics

The U.S. figure skater tells PEOPLE how her time away from the sport revitalized her love for itAlysa Liu Mike Coppola/Getty NEED TO KNOWAlysa Liu is ready for her second Winter OlympicsThe 20-year-old tells PEOPLE she is "more excited" than ever to compete, after taking a break following the 2022 Beijing Olympics“I was checked out. I was just there for the Olympic experience," she says about being a member of Team USA four years agoAlysa Liu ha…

Alysa Liu has returned to skating to become an Olympic favorite

As Alysa Liu recently recounted how she spent her two years of self-imposed exile from figure skating the joy she found in a sense of normalcy and the nonchalance with which she has a tendency to shrug off the extraordinary were evident in her voice and manner. “Well, I mean, I did a lot, even though I knew I was gonna have all the time in the world, you know, like, done with skating forever,” Liu said. “Now what? But I really, I got to work. I …