Why Alysa Liu is The Goat

Two time gold medalist. Ice skating icon. Laufey music video spotlight. 

As many of us know, Alysa Liu has slowly risen to internet fame because of her bubbly personality and inspiring journey. After feeling restricted within her sport, Liu parted ways from ice skating in 2022 after winning bronze during the Beijing Olympics. She had announced her retirement on instagram, claiming she was “moving on with her life” as skating had consumed her entire being, piling on top of dietary restrictions and strict coaching.  

As we know, she had a massive comeback, winning two gold medals for Team USA in the 2026 Milan Olympics. While scrolling through people’s opinions of her, I came across a post that claimed this: “Finding and displaying genuine joy in your chosen hobby, creative outlet, or sport is one of the rarest and most radical acts we can do in late stage capitalism”. Honestly, amen to that.

The capitalist mindset typically focuses on efficiency and profit, having us “believe that business activity and the market exchange are absolute, or "natural", in that all other human social relations revolve around these processes (or should exist to facilitate one's ability to perform these processes)”, as stated from Wikipedia. As students, this can be seen as giving up a passion, often creative, for a “better” profession as it can generate us a better profit. And, with AI being introduced to more parts of the workforce, genuine joy can be hard to find within a career. If that wasn’t enough, living in California and close to LA works against our advantage. The capitalist mindset is so deeply engrained into LA work culture that taking breaks to rest can seem like such a crime. So instead of conforming to the capitalist mindset that we see around ourselves constantly, I argue that we should take inspiration from Alysa Liu.

Liu re-entered the skating world with the condition that she would put herself as a priority. “No one is going to starve me or tell me what I can or cannot eat,” she stated in interviews. Liu now views skating as her passion, rather than a career, viewing the rink as a stage she performs in. Taking breaks and doing something on your own terms is something that everyone, especially students, should find a way to achieve. 

Whether it is a passion or creative outlet that you have an interest in, it is important to have something that you do for yourself. It is important for us, as high school students, to always reflect on what we’re doing and why, which is why when you set goals with genuine joy and passion, whether or not those goals pan out, you still get to enjoy something you love. Good things will come out of your experiences, and Alysa Liu is walking proof of that.