Alysa Liu was determined not to let the global health crisis sabotage her blossoming figure skating career.
When she could not use the Oakland Ice Center this past year, Liu walked two blocks away to a park to create programs for the season that turned out to be one competition — the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Las Vegas.
Liu, a two-time winner from Richmond, finished fourth after a downscaled technical program Friday night. She plans to return to the Bay Area on Monday with a fresh outlook a year before the Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Perhaps nothing symbolized the disruption of the pandemic year more than the visits to Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park in Uptown Oakland.
With COVID-19 restrictions shutting down many indoor facilities in Alameda County, Liu worked outdoors with famed Canadian choreographer Lori Nichol and new coach Massimo Scali on developing routines to match her maturity.
Father Arthur Liu recounted Saturday that his daughter worked in a rough environment with a lot of unhoused people mulling around the park that is known for a four-piece sculpture honoring firefighters who died during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
“She was often stared at, yelled at, and a couple of times followed by people to the rink,” Arthur Liu said.
But the skater finally was able to use the rink’s ballet room to work on movements that correspond to music, a big part of Liu’s growth as a skater.
The maturation flowed on the ice in Las Vegas where Liu had two solid performances Thursday and Friday nights.
But Liu could not make up the difference in the program component scores that measure the artistic side of the sport without attempting her signature triple axels and a quadruple lutz.
She jettisoned those jumps because of injuries, lack of training and puberty, Liu said.
She also was not quite herself in the free skate to “The Storm” by Balazs Havasi and Lisa Gerrard. The sure-footed skater cleanly landed only three of her planned seven triple jumps.
Two planned triple jumps became doubles whereas two others were slightly under-rotated. Had she landed either one of the triples Liu probably would have earned a bronze medal.
But do not sweep Liu aside. The three skaters ahead of her are in their early 20s and have had years to polish their spins, laybacks and choreographed routines.
Olympian Bradie Tennell, 22, took center stage to regain the title for the first time since 2018. Texan Amber Glenn had the best performance of her career to finish second just ahead of Karen Chen of Fremont.
Chen, who took a year off from Cornell University to focus on skating, won her third bronze medal at the championships. She also is the 2017 U.S. champion.
Chen, 21, was not satisfied with her performance skated to “Butterfly Lover Concerto” by Takako Nishizaki
“I left so many points on the table,” she said of at least three of her jumps. “Just silly mistakes here and there. I had envisioned the skate of my life. I had my expectations really high. I just wish I was able to deliver that.”
Liu easily could have finished second because she was only 1.94 points behind Glenn, 21.
This time next year Liu will be competing as a senior in international competition. If all goes well, she will enter the season with her big jumps refined.
“Now I know what I need to work on: my stamina and jumps,” Liu said. “This year was definitely full of challenges, with the virus and growing and my injury, but I’m up for any challenge.”
Getting time in the rink to train does not tell the story of Liu’s year of major change. Perhaps nothing was as profound as a growth spurt, something she recently told the Bay Area News Group she hoped would happen after her career.
Women’s figure skating is written with cautionary tales of early teens who can perform circus-like jumps only to fade into the background when undergoing puberty.
Liu burst onto the figure skating scene three years ago as a 4-foot-7 12-year-old when winning the U.S. junior title in San Jose. Then she became the youngest U.S. women’s champion in history at 13.
Last year, she became the first American woman to land two triple axels at a national championship and the first to complete one quadruple jump. By then she was 4-10.
Arthur Liu said Saturday Alysa is almost 5-2 now and she could not get the necessary ice time to get comfortable with the height.
Liu and her four younger siblings were conceived through anonymous egg donors and surrogate moms. It is difficult to predict how tall she will be.
But Liu, who plans to earn her high school diploma before the start of next season, will need to incorporate the high-scoring jumps into the handsome routines to play on the next level.
As exquisite as Tennell looked in Las Vegas when winning by a wide margin of 17.28 points, she so far does not have the jumps to match the fearless Russians.
The U.S. women have won only one medal at the Olympics or World Championships since 2006. Ashley Wagner finished second at the 2016 World Championships.
It was an unmitigated disaster at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. Tennell finished ninth, Mirai Nagasu 10th and Chen 11th in the worst U.S. performance in history.
U.S. Figure Skating announced Saturday that Tennell and Chen will compete at the World Championships, scheduled March 22-28 in Stockholm. The competition — if it is held — will determine whether the United States earns three berths to the Beijing Games.
Since age 13, Liu has been considered America’s best hope on the international stage. Liu always likes to say whatever the Russians are doing she wants to do.
But then came the pandemic and the growth. Liu did not practice the big jumps for almost seven months as she also changed coaches in June. Liu had begun working with Scali, a three-time Olympic ice dancer from Italy, a year ago.
She left coach Laura Lipetsky of Alameda in June. Lipetsky had trained Liu since age 5.
Scali and now two-time Olympian Jeremy Abbott are her main coaches. The plan is to mold Liu into a graceful performer to match her maturity.
Massimo said Friday night that he was pleased with Liu’s performances in Las Vegas despite the scores.
They had downplayed expectations before the competition after the way the year unfolded that included the cancellation of the Junior Grand Prix season.
Liu also had minor injuries in the summer, her father said Saturday. Then Liu fell on a triple axel attempt on Oct. 27 before a team event in Las Vegas. She said she suffered a right hip injury that forced Liu to stop practicing triple jumps for a month.
Besides going to Kaiser Park, Liu moved to Wilmington, Delaware, in the spring to train by herself at a rink. She recalled also isolating at her best friend’s house where she did not skate at all.
When the Oakland rink was not available, Liu and Scali, who lives in Berkeley, rode BART to San Francisco. They trained at the austere Yerba Buena Ice and Bowling Center.
Liu described the year as one big challenge after another.
“I am glad it happened this season and not another season,” she said.
Scali said Liu proved in Las Vegas she is more than a big jumper. But he said they have plans for much more from a visual perspective.
Liu, he said, never focused on skating before. She has much more to learn.
“She never even thought she could arrive there,” he said Friday night. “It is a gigantic step forward.
“But it is just the beginning of her path.”
