Alysa Liu won the gold at the 2019 U.S. Nationals, only at the age 13. This year, she made history for the second time around, by being the youngest lady to win again. She is a bright young lady, constantly smiling throughout her programs. This shows the judges, as well as the audience, that she loves what she does and wants to be performing. Figure skating is a beautiful sport to watch, however it is more enjoyable to watch when the skater has an amazing smile on their face. It shows why they are there, to show everyone how much they love the sport and what they do. Skaters put in so much time and effort into preparing for competition, so once they are there, it is time to layback and enjoy every second of the performance. Every time Liu steps foot on the ice, she is prepared to put on a show and impress her audience.
After the short program event, she is currently in second place. However, the first three jump passes in her free skate are the hardest ones she has in her run through and will bring up the points she needs to win the competition. She opens with elegant choreography throughout her first jump being a triple axel, double toe combo. She lands it effortlessly. Her next jump pass has never been attempted before in the U.S. champions ladies event, a quadruple lutz. Quadruples are typically less common to be seen attempted in the ladies events. She takes off with great height and snaps in the air tight to get the perfect air position, and lands it! Although it was a bit under-rotated, it was still amazing that she attempted this difficult jump and stood up on it! Her skating is constantly powerful throughout all of her entrances for jumps. The second she landed her third hardest jump in her program, the triple axel, she had a beautiful smile on her face. Moreover, her triple loop was landed as though not even a pin dropped and could be heard on the ice. She transitions into a lovely level 4 flying combination spin and continues choreography for a level 4 step sequence.
After the step sequence, it is essential she still tries her best on the jumps and final two spin passes because she will be receiving a 10 percent bonus. All elements after the step sequence receive bonus points. Her triple lutz, triple toe combo was landed with grace and her speed into her triple lutz, triple salcow combo was powerful. She presents the audience with beautiful inner bowers and spread eagles, showing again her gorgeous smile to everyone in the arena. Furthermore, her last jump pass was a triple flip, and once again she landed it very lightly on the ball of her foot. The expression on her face was priceless to see once she finished all of her jumps in her run through. Her face said it all, “I did it!” She finished her program with a stunning level 4 combination spin, and a fast level 4 layback spin. She finished with a huge smile on her face that was worth a million words.
She waits patiently as the judges tally up her points and she finishes with 160.12 as her total points for the free skate. Her total points with the short program and the free skate combined is 235.52! She received 10 more points that Bell, who is in second place. She starts to cry tears of joy because she is so happy and proud of herself. She is a hard working skater, and absolutely deserved to receive this title.
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