Alysa Liu’s decision to withdraw from the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague sent ripples of surprise through the sport. The 20-year-old, who captured not one but two gold medals in Milan, was originally listed among the competitors for the March 24-29 event. However, the unexpected withdrawal led her to issue an official statement.

On her Instagram story, Liu explained her reasoning with the same unfiltered honesty that has endeared her to millions, stating, “Hellooo as some of yall already know, I withdrew from Worlds. There’s been a lot of exciting things happening since my return from Milan, so I’m taking some time for that. I will be cheering everyone on from afar. see yall next season!!”

The announcement stood in stark contrast to the sentiments Liu had expressed just weeks earlier, during the closing ceremony of the Winter Games.

When asked about her future in the sport, she said, “Yeah, I mean, I have no plans to leave yet. I can’t imagine not skating the next year, so…” and added genuine enthusiasm, stating, “I love being an athlete. It’s the coolest thing in the world.”

Those words suggested a skater fully invested in the immediate future, ready to carry her Olympic momentum straight into Prague. And the timing of her withdrawal made the decision all the more striking.

ISU FSWC president Evžen Milčinský was looking forward to all the Olympic figure skaters, which included Alysa Liu.

The statement read, “I’m very pleased that almost the entire world elite has decided to come to the Worlds after the Olympic Games. In my view, this proves that Prague and the Czech Republic are appealing not only to fans but also to the athletes themselves.”

Liu’s presence would have made her the defending world champion, having claimed the title in Boston just a year before her Olympic breakthrough. Yet those who have followed her journey closely recognized a familiar pattern in her decision.

This is, after all, the same athlete who walked away from the sport entirely at 16, just months after her Olympic debut in Beijing, citing burnout and a need to reclaim her life from the relentless demands of elite competition.

Alysa Liu’s training once became a live horror movie for her

Figure skating glory came at a very young age for Alysa Liu. However, behind the statistics, medals, and fame lay the episodes of horror that she went through during her training.

Talking to The Rolling Stone, she recalled a chapter from her life that she wants to forget, stating, “Probably because [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.”

She added, “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. There’s no pinpoints.”

The daily routine became exhausting each day, and it really affected Liu’s mental state. Surely, success came later, but at the cost of living through such tough conditions. Once, her father even mentioned that he “made a mistake” by sending her child to live all alone for training in Colorado Springs.

For now, Liu is still basking in the Olympic glory, and as she promised to her millions of followers, the figure skating world will see her next season, completely refreshed and ready to dominate the ice again.