Alysa Liu, one of the brightest stars in Team USA figure skating, is opening up about the tension she experienced with her father as she navigated both retirement and a remarkable comeback ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

In a video interview with Rolling Stone posted March 7, the 20-year-old skater explained that her decision to return to competition in 2024 was entirely her own.

The move mirrored her earlier choice to retire after the 2022 Winter Olympics—a decision that caused friction with her father, Arthur Liu.

Liu said she carried the memory of that reaction when she decided to skate again. "I didn't want him to be mad that I was coming back," she said, adding that she hoped her choice would not affect him the way her retirement once did, SI reported.

She explained that she wished the decision could simply be hers, without strong reactions from others.

Her father had played a major role in her early career, helping guide her rise as a teenage prodigy in American figure skating. But Liu said she often felt that many decisions about her training and career were made by people around her rather than by herself.

Alysa Liu Reveals Intense Training Burnout

Looking back, Liu described how demanding her early training years were. She said the intense schedule eventually led to burnout and made it difficult to enjoy the sport she once loved.

At the time, practices were extremely strict and mistakes often felt overwhelming. "Every day was the same for me," she recalled. "Practice was so serious. I would cry after falling on every jump."

According to US Magazine, the constant pressure, she said, left her feeling as though she was always in "fight-or-flight mode." Liu also noted that rest days were rare during those early years.

According to the skater, she did not experience a real day off until training was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. That period away from the rink eventually helped Liu realize how exhausted she had been. She also reflected on how little control she felt over her own career at the time.

"I'd never made a single decision," she said, explaining that she usually went along with what others suggested.

When Liu chose to return to the sport, she approached things differently. She clarified that she did not remove her father from her team because he was never formally part of it.

Instead, she focused on shaping her comeback in a way that allowed her to make decisions for herself.

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