BOSTON — Alysa Liu couldn’t believe it.
As she sat on the white couch, flanked by her two coaches, and with the eyes of everyone in the TD Garden firmly on her, she said — or mouthed, it was impossible to hear much of anything with the enthusiastic noise of the crowd vibrating around the arena — “What?” in disbelief. Her free skate score had just been announced to the crowd — a 148.39 for a 222.97 total score — and the realization hit her in an instant.
She was the 2025 world champion.
The 19-year-old then audibly said, “What the hell?” with a wide, expressive smile, still in apparent shock over what she had done.
Liu’s triumph was perhaps the most unexpected result of a memorable weekend. In addition to knocking off reigning three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan and becoming the first American woman to claim the title since 2006, Liu had done it less than a year after returning to the sport following a two-year retirement.
“I’m not going to lie, this is an insane story,” Liu said on the television broadcast moments later. “I don’t know how I came back to be world champion.”
Alysa Liu is GOLDEN. ✨
Relive her stellar free skate that secured the first world title for a U.S. women’s singles skater since 2006. pic.twitter.com/Z5DPG3x9po
—…
