Earlier this month, the figure skating world received surprising news when United States star and Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu made the decision to drop out of the world championships where she’s the reigning champion.
The decision came after the ISU Figure Skating Championships initially announced 11 of 12 Olympic medalists would be skating in the event in a social media post highlighting the American. Liu initially admitted she had too many other engagements after winning a gold medal in the Olympics to give her best performance in the tournament.
“There’s so many commitments I have and activities that are overlapping with worlds, and also I don’t have much time training,” Liu said. “So I can’t be doing worlds. I don’t think I’d put out my best performance.”
On Monday, March 23, she revealed in a new interview with Nike how she plans to choose the best use of her time moving forward – which also helps explain her decision to drop out of the event.
“At the end of the day, if it’s not a ‘[expletive] yes,’ it’s a ‘[expletive] no.’ When it comes to activities or opportunities, that’s how I think about it now,” she revealed in the new interview.
“I still say yes to a lot of things, but I’m more intentional about it. I don’t really have regrets. You live and you learn. A big part of getting to that was learning to stop shutting down my own feelings and needs and no longer putting certain people on a pedestal.”
The world championships are scheduled to begin on March 25. Other big names like Ilia Malinin and Amber Glenn of the United States will be competing.