Alysa Liu Says Her Dad ‘Didn’t Deserve to be Happy’ Over Skating Comeback in Bold Interview

Photo by Manny Carabel/Getty Images

Alysa Liu’s Olympic comeback may have been celebrated across the United States, but the figure skating star says her father’s reaction to the news didn’t sit right with her.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone shared Saturday, March 7, the 20-year-old Team USA standout opened up about her complicated feelings when her dad, Arthur Liu, expressed happiness over her decision to return to competitive skating.

“I don’t know. I have no idea. I mean, he was happy. But that didn’t matter to me. I didn’t care that he was happy. I was almost mad that he was happy, because I was like, ‘How dare you?’” Alysa declared.

She went on to explain that her frustration stemmed from how involved her father had been earlier in her career: “Well, I was just like, ‘You don’t deserve to be happy over this decision, kind of. Because you were mad when I quit.’ So I was kind of like, he shouldn’t have an opinion on it at all, if that makes sense. I didn’t want him to be mad that I was coming back; I just didn’t want him to care. Like, at all. because it shouldn’t affect him as much as it did the last time around.”

Alysa also clarified that she never “fired” her dad, and said simply that “he was never there.”

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Arthur played a major role in his daughter’s early skating career, investing heavily in her development. He once said he spent between $500,000 and $1 million supporting Alysa’s training and rise through the competitive ranks. “I spared no money, no time,” Arthur admitted in a 60 Minutes interview. “I just saw talent.”

But that level of involvement also contributed to Liu feeling burned out. After competing in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, she stepped away from the sport entirely, revealing her retirement on Instagram. “I didn’t tell anybody, because I knew I was going to get some pushback, and then I posted about it and that’s how everybody found out,” Alysa noted in the interview.

“Everybody was freaking out and a lot of people were getting mad at me,” Alysa said, revealing that some were angry she didn’t tell them personally. “Yeah, that’s the point, because I knew people would try to keep me in the sport.”

Her return eventually led to one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent Olympic history. At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Liu captured two gold medals and became the first American woman to win Olympic singles gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002.

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“I literally can’t process this,” Liu said afterward, according to USA Today.a