Skating now a happy place for Alysa Liu

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Skating now a happy place for Alysa Liu

Alysa Liu was walking down a hallway to a press conference at last season’s U.S Championships, and she was chattering, and chattering, about everything and nothing, a smile on her face throughout the five-minute walk.

And she hasn’t stopped since, rambling on through stream-of-consciousness answers to questions, smiling at every opportunity in her performances.

It is so wonderfully far from the often-morose demeanor Liu took on before what had seemed to be the end of her career.

The rink has become her happy place.

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates find appreciation in swan song Olympic season

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates find appreciation in swan song Olympic season

They have been around the competitive ice dance world so long it would be easy for Madison Chock and Evan Bates to develop a sense of ennui, a sense of been there, done that, of thinking how can their 1,000th practice or seventh appearance at the U.S. stop on the Grand Prix circuit be anything more that a forgettable way station on the trip to their ultimate goal.

It's just such an attitude that the winners of the last three world titles have been consciously rejecting as they prepare to skate together in a fourth Olympics this February in Milan, Italy, where they would seek the one thing missing from their sparkling résumé: an ice dance Olympic medal (preferably a gold one.)

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At figure skating worlds, a U.S.-Canada ice dance story adds a chapter

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At figure skating worlds, a U.S.-Canada ice dance story adds a chapter

The two couples have both been in the same ice dance universe for 14 seasons, with each moving at a different trajectory and speed toward the shiny medals that once seemed distant.

One team, Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States, got there faster and collected more medals of all colors and more of the most glittering.

Yet as they and rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada home in on the biggest and brightest medal of all, an Olympic gold, the gap between the two couples has narrowed to the point that who stands on the top step of the podium at the 2026 Winter Games is almost impossible to predict.

Even the results of the 2025 World Championships that began Wednesday in Boston likely will not be enough to make one couple the decisive favorite next year in Milan, Italy.

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Audrey Shin, Balazs Nagy forge unique pairs’ figure skating partnership

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Audrey Shin, Balazs Nagy forge unique pairs’ figure skating partnership

Over the three seasons after what seemed like a breakthrough bronze medal performance at Skate America in 2020, Audrey Shin had slowly lost both her confidence in the skills needed to be successful in singles and her motivation to keep doing it.

At the end of last season, his first in what seemed a promising partnership with Chelsea Liu, veteran pairs’ skater Balázs Nagy lost Liu when she announced on Instagram in late March she had ended the partnership to prioritize her mental health.

Because of those losses, Shin and Nagy found each other and a new career path in the sport.

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For jumper extraordinaire Ilia Malinin, surprise is a key element

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For jumper extraordinaire Ilia Malinin, surprise is a key element

MONTREAL – Skating’s international young man of jump mystery and mastery slipped into a seat in a hotel lobby Tuesday evening, a smile on his eternally boyish face and who-knows-what surprises in his 19-year-old mind for the world championships?

Will there be a quadruple Axel in his short program when the men’s competition begins Thursday? (He did that for the only time in winning December’s Grand Prix Final.)

Two quad Axels in the free skate? (He talked about that earlier in the season.)

A quad-quad combination? (He has been amusing himself by trying quad toe-quad Axel and other quad-quad combos with quad flip, quad Salchow or quad loop as the second jump.)

All six types of quads in the free skate, before rumored upcoming rules changes limit the number of quads?

We may not know until the music starts. Malinin may not know until his final warm-up.

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