On Friday night (March 28), at the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships held at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, American figure skater of Chinese descent Alysa Liu won the gold medal in this year’s world championships.
After retiring for three years and making a comeback just one year ago, Alysa Liu unexpectedly became the world champion.
According to reports from the United States, on Friday, Alysa Liu also became the first American woman to win the world figure skating championship in nearly two decades. Accompanied by music, she made history with a spectacular and poised performance. After winning the short program champion in the ladies’ singles earlier this week, she also claimed the free skate champion title, culminating in her appearance on the awards podium following her performance on Friday night.
The 19-year-old Alysa Liu surpassed three-time defending world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan with a total score of 222.97 points to win the gold medal. Mone Chiba, also from Japan, received the bronze medal, while American skaters Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn took the fourth and fifth places respectively.
When asked if she had expected to become a world champion when she returned to the competition last year, Alysa Liu laughed and said no, she didn’t.
“Not even yesterday, I didn’t think about it,” she said.
She is the first American female figure skating world champion since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
In 2022, Alysa Liu represented the United States at the Beijing Winter Olympics and won a bronze medal at the world championships, but she quickly announced her retirement.
At the time, at the age of 16, she wrote on Instagram, “I have achieved my figure skating goals and will focus on life.”
“I started figure skating at the age of 5, and it has been 11 years being accompanied by the ice rink so far, it’s been an amazing 11 years. Honestly, I never thought I could achieve what I have now, I am very happy. I am very satisfied with my figure skating career.”
Alysa Liu has won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships twice, becoming the youngest champion in the history of the event when she won at the age of 13 in 2019. She successfully defended her title before the COVID outbreak in 2020.
During Alysa Liu’s participation in the Beijing Olympics, her family members in the United States were secretly surveilled by the Chinese Communist Party. In March 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged five individuals, alleging that they, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party’s secret police, monitored, harassed, and slandered Chinese Americans critical of the CCP.
Alysa Liu’s father, Arthur Liu (also known as Liu Junguo), stated that in October 2021, while 16-year-old Alysa Liu was training to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, FBI agents contacted him, informing him of the activities planned by the Chinese Communist special agents targeting his family.