Alysa Liu's new reality: fame, fashion and the fast lane

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Alysa Liu's new reality: fame, fashion and the fast lane

Phillip DiGuglielmo began to see the handwriting on the wall not long after murals of Alysa Liu went up in Oakland and suburban Los Angeles.

For two weeks after Liu won the Olympic women’s singles title Feb. 19 in Milan, she and DiGuglielmo, her coach, still planned on going to Prague later this month so she could defend her world title.

“I knew her training wouldn’t be optimal, but we’re used to that,” DiGuglielmo said by telephone. “But this was going to be far from optimal.”

He understood that it was time for Liu to optimize the things coming her way since she became a sensation at the Olympics.

“She is just exploding,” he said. “Even her agents are overwhelmed. You have to balance what is her opportunity to build her brand versus going to worlds.”

By last Friday, she and her team agreed it was best for Liu to withdraw from the World Championships.

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Alysa Liu swept up in a glittering figure skating whirlwind

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Alysa Liu swept up in a glittering figure skating whirlwind

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Alysa Liu’s Olympic season began three months ago in Norwood, Massachusetts for a U.S. Figure Skating pre-season training camp.

Then came Bergamo, Italy for a Challenger Series competition. And Chongqing, China, 1,200 miles southwest of Beijing, for the Cup of China Grand Prix competition, followed by a (purposely) sleepless night and a flight the next day to New York City for the U.S. Olympic committee’s media days previewing the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Next was a little more than two weeks at her home in the San Francisco Bay area. And, in the latest episode of 'Where’s Alysa,' she wound up in the you-can’t-get-there-from-here north woods of New York state, specifically Lake Placid, for the Saatva Skate America Grand Prix event.

Ms. Liu heads back to the Bay Area with the Skate America gold medal, her first win at a Grand Prix event, and another long trip added to her Olympic season itinerary. This one is to Nagoya, Japan for the Grand Prix Final in two and one-half weeks.

Combined with a second place at Cup of China, her victory Sunday earned the reigning world champion one of the six singles spots in the Grand Prix Final women’s field.

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