On February 19, 2026, Alysa Liu glided onto the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, waved at the crowd like she was arriving at a party she had been looking forward to all week, and then proceeded to deliver one of the most joyful, electrifying performances in the history of American figure skating.
She landed a triple axel. She sailed through six more triple jumps. She beamed from start to finish. And when it was over, she had become the first American woman to win Olympic gold in women's figure skating since Sarah Hughes in Salt Lake City back in 2002.
The arena erupted. The internet erupted. And somewhere in living rooms, rinks, and school gyms across the country, a few million people watched Alysa Liu skate and thought the same thing for the first time in their lives: I want to do that.
This article is for those people.
Who Is Alysa Liu?
Alysa Liu is a 20-year-old figure skater from Oakland, California, and as of February 2026 she is the reigning Olympic champion in women's singles figure skating — one of the most historic titles in all of winter sport.
But her path to that podium is anything but conventional, and it is a big part of why so many people have fallen in love with her.
Liu burst onto the figure skating scene in 2019 when, at just 13 years old, she became the youngest U.S. Figure Skating champion in history. She landed a triple axel — one of the most technically demanding jumps in the sport — in competition at an age when most skaters are still mastering the basics.
She competed at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, finished sixth, and then did something almost unheard of in elite sport: she walked away. At 16, with the skating world expecting great things, she retired. Not from injury. Not from controversy. She just needed a break.
"I got to explore new areas, new hobbies and interests," Liu later said. "And that is what life is all about: trying new things and learning."
Two years later she came back. And she came back different — looser, happier, and skating entirely on her own terms. She won the 2025 World Championship in Boston, ending a 19-year drought for American women on that stage. Then she went to Milan and won the Olympic gold medal that had eluded her four years earlier.
"I was peak happiness when I was out there on the ice," she said afterward. "Nothing could bring me higher than that."
Why Alysa Liu Is Different
Elite figure skating has historically been a sport defined by pressure, sacrifice, and a culture that can chew young athletes up and spit them out. Stories of burnout, disordered eating, and mental health struggles are not uncommon in the sport at the highest levels.
Alysa Liu arrived at the 2026 Olympics and essentially ignored all of that.
She looked straight at the Olympic rings and said, she was not scared. And then, as if by magic, the Games no longer had any power over her. She skated her free program to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park with a broad smile, landing her jumps with the kind of confidence that comes not from having nothing to lose, but from genuinely loving what you are doing.
Liu has attracted a new crowd of fans who previously had not considered figure skating a modern women's sport, with skating newcomers drawn in by her discussions about mental health and training on her own terms.
By the end of the Games, Liu had gained 5.68 million Instagram followers — a 1,856% increase — making her one of the biggest social media stories of the entire 2026 Winter Olympics.
She was on the Today Show. She was on The Tonight Show. She landed on the cover of Teen Vogue. And just last week she withdrew from the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, posting on social media that there are "exciting things happening" since her return from Milan — which, if you have been following her trajectory, you believe completely.
Alysa Liu is 20 years old and she has already changed the face of her sport. The question is what she changed it into — and the answer is something far more accessible, joyful, and human than figure skating has often allowed itself to be.
The Olympic Effect: What Always Happens After the Games
Every four years, the Winter Olympics produces a figure skating moment that sends a wave of new people to their nearest rink. It happened after Kristi Yamaguchi in 1992. It happened after Michelle Kwan in 1998 and 2002. It happened after Kim Yuna in 2010 and Yuzuru Hanyu in 2014 and 2018.
The pattern is always the same. Someone performs something extraordinary on ice. Millions of people watch. A percentage of those viewers — not competitive skaters, not even people who have thought much about the sport — feel something shift inside them. They want to know what it feels like to glide. They start searching. They look up their nearest rink.
Alysa Liu in 2026 is that moment, amplified by social media in a way that no previous figure skating champion has experienced. Her fan base is not just figure skating fans — it is Gen Z audiences who connect with her personality, her aesthetic, her willingness to be herself in a sport that has historically demanded conformity. Many of them have never put on a pair of ice skates in their lives.
If you are one of those people — welcome. Here is where to start.
Starting Ice Skating as a Complete Beginner
The most important thing to know before your first skate session is this: it is more learnable than it looks. What Alysa Liu does on the ice took fifteen years of dedicated training. What you will do in your first session — glide, stop, not fall too many times — takes about an hour.
The gap between where you start and where you need to be to genuinely enjoy recreational skating is much smaller than most people assume. Here is how to close it.
Find a Public Skate Session
The entry point for almost everyone is a public skate session — open ice time at an indoor rink where anyone can show up, rent skates, and skate for an hour or two regardless of their skill level.
Most cities have at least one indoor rink offering public skate sessions on a regular basis. Session length, admission, rental pricing, and booking rules vary, so confirm them with the rink you plan to visit. Nashville's Centennial Sportsplex is one example of a rink whose operator and booking process recently changed.
Use the Ice Skating Index rink finder to locate public skate sessions near you.
What to Wear
Dress for cold and movement. Indoor rinks run around 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit — colder than it sounds, especially with the chill radiating off the ice. The right outfit makes a real difference in your comfort level.
Wear flexible athletic pants or jeans rather than shorts. Layer your top half so you can remove a layer as you warm up — you will. Bring thin gloves: when you fall, your hands hit the ice first. One pair of tall, thick socks gives you the best fit in rental skates — avoid thin ankle socks or two pairs, both of which reduce ankle support.
Getting Your Skates
For a first visit, rental skates are completely fine. Most rinks offer figure skates and hockey skates for rental. For complete beginners, figure skates are recommended — the longer blade and toe pick at the front provide more stability and are more forgiving for balance.
Ice skates typically run one to one and a half sizes smaller than your regular shoe size. When properly fitted, your heel should feel locked in and your toes should barely graze the front of the boot. If the skates feel loose or sloppy, ask for a different size. Fit matters enormously for beginners.
Lace them tight — especially around the ankle. Loose skates are the single biggest source of instability and pain for first-timers. Lace from the toe upward, pulling each section snug, and tie firmly at the top.
Your First Minutes on the Ice
Step onto the ice and grab the boards. This is not embarrassing — it is the right move. Give yourself a moment to feel the surface under your feet before trying to move.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. This bent-knee position is the foundation of everything in skating. Straight legs mean no shock absorption and a lot of falling. Stay low.
Before you try to glide, march in place — literally lift one foot and put it down, then the other. It sounds silly but it teaches your body to shift weight side to side on blades, which is the fundamental movement of skating.
When you are ready to glide, push off gently with one foot and let the other carry you forward. Small steps, not big pushes. Keep your eyes up — looking down at your feet shifts your weight forward and throws off your balance.
You will fall. Everyone does. Bend your knees and go down in a controlled crouch rather than stiffening up and going down hard. Gloves protect your hands. Getting back up is part of the process.
Learning to Stop
Here is the thing nobody tells first-timers: going is easy. Stopping is the skill.
The beginner stop — called the snowplow — works like this: point both toes slightly inward, push both heels outward gently, and press down on the inside edges of both blades. The friction slows you down. It will not stop you instantly and it is not glamorous, but it is reliable and you can learn it in a single session.
Practice it at slow speeds first, heading gently toward the boards, before you need it at real skating speed.
What Makes Figure Skating Different From Recreational Skating
What Alysa Liu does and what you will do at a public skate session are related but distinct activities — like the difference between a professional chef and someone who cooks dinner at home. The skills overlap but the demands are completely different.
Recreational ice skating — gliding around a public rink, doing simple turns, skating with friends or family — requires no formal training and is accessible to almost anyone after a few sessions. It is genuinely fun and a legitimate workout without being competitive or technically demanding.
Figure skating, the sport Alysa Liu competes in, is built on that same foundation but adds:
Edges. Every move in figure skating is built on the precise use of blade edges — inside and outside edges on each foot. Controlling edges is what separates recreational skating from figure skating technique, and it takes months to develop.
Jumps. Alysa Liu's signature move is the triple axel — a jump that requires three and a half rotations in the air, launched from a forward edge and landed on a back outside edge. It is one of the most technically demanding elements in the sport and only a handful of women in the world can do it cleanly in competition. The simpler single jumps — salchow, toe loop, loop — are where competitive figure skaters start, typically after a year or more of consistent training.
Spins. The centered, controlled spin that looks effortless from the stands requires significant core strength, edge control, and spatial awareness to execute. Learning a basic upright spin typically takes several months of regular practice.
Programs. Competitive figure skaters perform choreographed routines set to music, combining jumps, spins, step sequences, and artistic movement into a cohesive performance. The short program runs roughly two and a half minutes; the free skate runs four to five minutes. Both require extraordinary physical and mental endurance.
The takeaway: if watching Alysa Liu inspires you to try skating recreationally, you can do that this weekend. If it inspires you to pursue figure skating more seriously — to learn jumps, spins, and technique — that path exists too, and it starts in the same place: your nearest rink, a pair of rental skates, and a learn-to-skate program.
How to Actually Learn Figure Skating
If recreational skating is not enough and you want to pursue the actual sport — learn the jumps, develop technique, maybe compete someday — the structured path is straightforward.
Start With a Learn-to-Skate Program
The most efficient way to learn figure skating is through a structured learn-to-skate program following the Learn to Skate USA curriculum (or equivalent international standards). These programs are offered at almost every indoor rink and are grouped by skill level rather than age, so you progress through the material at your own pace.
A typical session runs 6-8 weeks with weekly group lessons (30 minutes of instruction) plus supervised practice time (another 30 minutes). Cost is usually $100-150 per session — far more affordable and more effective than trying to teach yourself during public skate.
Most importantly, you get coaching feedback on things you cannot see or feel yet — blade positions, edge control, weight distribution. That feedback accelerates progress dramatically.
Read our complete beginner's guide to ice skating for more details on finding programs near you.
The First Skills You Will Learn
If you enroll in a learn-to-skate program, your first session will focus on:
- Forward skating with good posture and knee bend
- Basic stopping (the snowplow stop)
- Forward crossovers
- Backward skating basics
By session 4-5, you will be working on:
- Backward crossovers
- Two-foot spins (beginning turns)
- Introduction to forward edges
By the end of the session, if you are progressing well, you will have a foundation in forward and backward skating, understand how to use edges, and be ready for the next level — where single jumps and more advanced spins enter the picture.
How Long Does It Take?
This question comes up constantly and the answer is: it depends on how often you skate and how much you practice.
- Recreational skating competence (gliding, stopping, basic turns): 3-4 weeks of 1-2 sessions per week
- Single jump mastery (salchow, toe loop, loop): 4-6 months of consistent practice and instruction
- Basic double jumps: 6-12 months
- Triple jumps and competitive readiness: 3-5+ years
Alysa Liu has been skating since she was a small child. She has logged somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000+ hours of training by the time she reached the Olympic podium at 20. But a reasonable skater who trains 10-15 hours per week can be performing double jumps and competing in local competitions within a year or two.
The point: learning to skate recreationally is fast and easy. Learning to skate competitively takes time and dedication. Both are real paths and both start at your nearest rink.
Start This Weekend
If Alysa Liu's performance at Milan inspired you to try ice skating, do not let that inspiration sit. Public skating is affordable, accessible, and genuinely fun. You do not need to commit to years of training or Olympic aspirations. Many people come to love skating simply for the feeling of gliding on ice and the community of skaters at their local rink.
Find a rink near you using the Ice Skating Index rink finder. Book a public skate session. Rent some skates. Spend an hour on the ice.
Then come back next week. And the week after that.
That is how all great skaters start — not with Olympic dreams, but with the simple desire to try something new and see where it leads.
Published by Ice Skating Index — your guide to everything on the ice.