Liu, 20, is widely expected to represent the U.S. at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. She has not been officially selected for the figure skating team, though that process will be finalized by the end of the U.S. Championships, which begin Wednesday for senior performers. And she is also expected to compete for gold in Italy after winning one in Boston at the world championships last March, a victory that cemented her comeback as much more serious than sentimental.“Everything about that performance was just amazing,” said Philip Hersh, an Jattvibe Sports contributor and longtime Olympic writer who covered Liu’s win in Boston. “It was just, it was awe inspiring, and she landed jump after jump. I’ve seen very few other skaters ever top that, in terms of doing two flawless performances on the biggest stage — other than the Olympics — in your sport.” Liu followed up her showing in Boston with two more golds — one as part of a team at the 2025 ISU World Team Trophy, and another solo one at the 2025–26 Grand Prix Final in Nagoya. Since returning to competition, one key difference for Liu has been exerting more control over her career: She has had much more input on her costumes, music and training schedule. “She hates this term, but we almost call it Alysa 2.0,” says Phillip DiGuglielmo, Liu’s longtime coach who has worked with her before and after her retirement. “It’s like a reboot, in a way. Before, literally, she never disagreed with anything anybody ever said. But now she has complete freedom to chime in and we respect that. So, she exercises her right all the time.”Liu has gone to great lengths to manage her programs, tinkering with every detail from her music to her costume. According to DiGuglielmo, she went through somewhere close to 15 versions of the music she wanted to skate to at the U.S. championships. The dress she will be debuting Friday wasn’t finalized until she had it sent back to her dressmaker several times for alterations. What makes Liu special is not only her attention to detail. According to DiGuglielmo, it’s her confidence when the lights are the brightest. “When an ultra-elite athlete goes out, there’s still some brain cells that are telling them, ‘OK, this is it. This is my moment. I have to do this,'” DiGuglielmo said. “With Alysa, that doesn’t exist. I always say something is wrong with her brain. She just doesn’t get nervous.”As she’s taken the reins of her career, Liu’s grown better as a skater. She finished sixth overall at the 2022 Olympics, and third at the World Championships that year. Now, she is coming off an international gold and is in contention for one more in Italy. It’s an ascent that couldn’t have happened if she hadn’t walked away first.“It was so rewarding,” Liu says of her mini-retirement. “I was able to give more to the people I loved, because as a skater, I wasn’t able to. I was finally able to hang out with my siblings, do stuff with them like a normal family, and attend my friends’ birthday parties. It’s crazy, I has never done any of that before. I would miss Christmases. I was able to finally celebrate these amazing things in life. And because I was able to give to people, I was given more myself. And so it was just like, I felt so human for the first time.” That growth ultimately led her back to the ice but, in another first, on her own terms.“Oh, it’s fully for myself” this time, Liu said. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool.”