02/20/2026
Alysa Liu won gold! 🥇🥇🥇
What’s even more amazing about her story is that she began ice skating as a young child and was a solid skater. She did things that other American women figure skaters could not do at the time.
But at 16, she announced her retirement from the sport. I remembered reading that and how sad I felt along with so many followers of women’s figure skating.
But guess what she did? She was a teenager. She hung out with friends. She went to college. Alysa led a life outside of elite figure skating.
And then she returned. Her coach tried to convince her to not come back, not because he didn’t believe in her, but because of how much he cared for her. Yet she persisted.
She came back with her own rules, her own parameters, her own boundaries. Alysa kindly told her father that he was not allowed to be part of her coaching team anymore. She said “Nobody is going to tell me what I can and can’t eat”.
And then she skated out onto the biggest competitions in figure skating, and won with sheer love and joy for the sport.
Alysa Liu treated her sport like her art, and she skated to her own tunes.
After she won gold earlier today, she said that she wants to raise awareness about mental health in sports, and she is most joyful about human connection.
What’s the lesson of her story?
From the lens of this mental health therapist, it’s the power of focusing on and nourishing your mental health. When we nourish our mental health, we nourish our overall health, physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally, and spiritually.
Congratulations to Alysa Liu!!!! This was so well-deserved.
