After winning the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina with two gold medals, Alysa Liu was prepared to bring her momentum to the next big event. Fans and experts alike were waiting to see her lead the U.S again at the World Figure Skating Championships. However, only a couple of weeks prior to the spectacle, Liu unexpectedly dropped out, leaving the way open to a 19-year-old athlete.

Recently, the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships, which will be held from Tuesday, March 24 to Sunday, March 29, 2026, released the official list of athletes who will take part in the event.

It features some of the best skaters in the world, including Olga Mikutina, Nargiz Suleymanova, Jade Hovine, Loena Hendrickx, Alexandra Feigin, Madeline Schizas, Gabrielle Daleman, Ruiyang Zhang, Stefania Yakovleva, and Ekaterina Kurakova, among others.

However, fans quickly noticed the absence of Alysa Liu from the official list. Following the release, reports from AnythingGOE on X confirmed that Liu had withdrawn from the competition just weeks before it was set to begin. Taking her place is Sarah Everhardt.

Everhardt is the 2025 Four Continents bronze medalist, a four-time Challenger Series medalist, the 2025 U.S. national bronze medalist, and the 2024 U.S. national pewter medalist. And now, she will represent the U.S. at Worlds in Liu’s spot.

Interestingly, before her withdrawal, Alysa Liu had hinted at competing, saying, “I have maybe World Championships coming up. I have yet to fully decide if I’m gonna do it, but I really want to.”

With her pulling out, she won’t be defending her 2025 World Figure Skating Championship, which made her the first American woman in nearly 20 years to claim the world title. However, as she says, her happiness isn’t in direct proportion to the medals she receives.

“I would have been fine either way,” she said about the Olympics. “I would have been loving life outside of skating just as much. But yes, I am really happy with how my life is right now.”

Interestingly, Alysa Liu seems to follow a familiar pattern after the Olympics, a kind of promise as if she has made to herself to take real time off before returning to the ice.

Alysa Liu’s post-Olympic pause follows her old pattern

After the 2026 Winter Olympics, Alysa Liu revealed that she planned to take a break from training and competition. “I would.. definitely take that break..,” she said after the Olympics. “Trying new things will definitely give you a different outcome,” Liu said.

And she did it! Later, she revealed spending the five days after her victories resting, reconnecting with friends, and stepping away from media and obligations.

“After I won, [there] was no sleep…. I went home, and I literally did whatever I wanted for five days. I didn’t have any media, and I had no commitments, so it was really great. I got to see a lot of my friends again, and just relax and catch up on sleep. I skated twice just because I wanted to,” she shared.

This mirrors what she did after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Then 16, Alysa Liu took a long break from competitive skating, saying she had been on the ice for 11 years and wanted to experience life outside the rink.

 “I was homeschooled my whole life…I’m a very social person. I crave human connection,” she said. “All I wanted was to be with my family and friends at home, and live like a normal teenage girl.”

Throughout that break, Alysa Liu had the opportunity to do many things that many young adults do not have the chance to do: attending college at UCLA, getting a driver’s license, attending concerts, skiing and snowboarding, and taking vacations.

 “I got to do so many different things that I never would have done had I stayed in the sport,” she told NBC.

It is apparent that, following every Olympics, Alysa Liu focuses more on rest and personal time…a pattern that looks almost like an oath to herself.