Alysa Liu became the first woman ever to land two triple axels in one programme.
When you think of figure skating legends, names like Tonya Harding, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean spring to mind.
Now you can add Alysa Liu to that list.
The 13-year-old dominated some worthy opponents at the US figure skating championships on Friday and became the third woman to land a triple axel cleanly at a US nationals after Tonya Harding (1991) and Kimmie Meissner (2005). On Friday, she became the first to land two in a program.
Alysa finished with a total of 217.51 points. When her free skate score of 143.62 was revealed the skating star couldn’t quite believe it and her reaction was priceless.
Watch out world. Alysa Liu has arrived. ??#USChamps19 pic.twitter.com/PeYd7t0fbG
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) January 26, 2019
And the exceptionally talented young woman was only competing with one person on the day – herself. She told NBC:
“I was just happy that I beat my personal record, and I did a clean long program.”
At under five foot, Alysa is a small but mighty force to be reckoned with. In a moment of exceptional sportswomanship, Tennell and third-place winner Mariah Bell helped the champion climb onto her prime podium position.
This is what it’s all about. pic.twitter.com/weenqeA4RJ
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) January 26, 2019
On the day, Tara Lipinski who previously held the record for youngest U.S. women’s champion, winning the 1997 championship when she was just 14 congratulated Alysa on her win saying, “records were made to be broken.”
Records are meant to be broken and I couldn’t be more excited that Alysa was the one to break it. What a talent! So well deserved. 22 years ago I tried to push the technical envelope and now Alyssa has taken it to the next level. She is the future of US ladies skating. pic.twitter.com/I0Z5Hoqca7
— Tara Lipinski (@taralipinski) January 26, 2019
Indeed, the future looks bright for Alysa Liu. By 2022, she will be 16 and able to compete in the Olympics and we’re already looking forward to that stellar performance.
20×20 is an ambitious two-year long initiative to better promote and champion women in sport.
With the tagline of “if she can’t see it, she can’t be it,” the 20×20 movement has three targets to reach by 2020:
- 20 percent more media coverage of women in sport
- 20 percent more female participation
- 20 percent more attendance at women’s competitions and events
And at Maximum Media, we’re proud that Her and SportsJOE is backing the 20×20 movement as official digital media partners.
