Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu's advice for aspiring figure skaters

Milan, Italy — U.S. fig skater Alysa Liu smiled arsenic she recalled the "so hype" assemblage Thursday aft winning Olympic gold successful the women's singles lawsuit — a archetypal for Team USA since 2002.

"Just the vigor successful the arena. That's wherefore I skate," Liu told "CBS Saturday Morning" co-host Kelly O'Grady successful Milan, Italy, connected Friday.

The 20-year-old skater said she doesn't consciousness tense erstwhile she slides onto the ice; instead, she focuses connected the joyousness the athletics brings her. To "protect [her] peace," she surrounds herself with friends who support her grounded. She says she has besides learned to accidental nary erstwhile necessary.

Liu acknowledges that becoming an Olympic jock requires a equilibrium of hard work, dedication, and a genuine emotion for the sport.

"I emotion moving hard and pushing myself to the limit, but to bash that, I request rest," Liu said, emphasizing the value of recognizing erstwhile to prioritize recovery.

U.S. fig skater Alysa Liu competes successful the Winter Olympics astatine the Milano Ice Skating Arena connected Feb. 19, 2026, successful Milan, Italy. Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

She made past arsenic the youngest U.S. women's champion astatine 13, past stunned the skating satellite by retiring astatine 16 pursuing her 2022 Olympic debut successful Beijing, wherever she placed sixth. But 2 years later, she got the itch to instrumentality to the ice.

"I wasn't readying to instrumentality to contention astatine this point," she told "60 Minutes" successful January. "I conscionable wanted speedy hits of dopamine, basically."

In June 2024, Liu started grooming again afloat clip with coaches Massimo Scali and Phillip DiGuglielmo. Her comeback wasn't astir the hardware, but astir the journey.

"I anticipation [my communicative is] inspiring, and I anticipation it allows for others to...break done more," Liu said, adding that she besides wants her programme and idiosyncratic benignant to beryllium remembered.

For skaters aspiring to beryllium "the adjacent Alysa," Liu has advice: "Don't effort to beryllium the adjacent me."

While she hopes she inspires different athletes to prosecute their passions, she wants to punctual everyone to beryllium their authentic selves.

"At the extremity of the day, instrumentality immoderate clip for yourself. Spend clip alone. I deliberation it truly helped me," she advised.

As for proposal for her younger self, Liu said she wouldn't archer her a thing.

"She's going to fig it retired herself. I don't privation to alteration anything," Liu said.

In:

• Figure Skating
• Olympics