Alysa Liu becomes first American woman to win figure skating world championship in 19 years

In a stunning instrumentality to the sport, American fig skater Alysa Liu dethroned three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan astatine the World Figure Skating Championships Friday nighttime astatine Boston's TD Garden. 

Liu became the archetypal American pistillate to assertion a rubric since Kimmie Meissner successful 2006. 

Liu's triumph marked a meteoric comeback aft stepping distant from the athletics successful 2022. 

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Alysa Liu of the United States reacts aft performing her regular successful the women's escaped programme astatine the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2025 astatine TD Garden March 28, 2025, successful Boston.  (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

"I mean, it means truthful overmuch to maine and everything I’ve been through," Liu said aft the victory. "My past skating experience, my clip distant and this clip astir — I’m truthful happy, I guess. I’m mostly gladsome I could enactment retired 2 of my champion performances."

Liu was erstwhile considered a rising prima arsenic the youngest U.S. champ ever erstwhile she triumphed astatine the property of 13 successful 2019 and past defended her rubric the adjacent year. She fulfilled a puerility imagination by qualifying for the Olympics, finishing sixth astatine the 2022 Beijing Games, and earned a bronze medal astatine the satellite championships that year.

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Alysa Liu of the U.S. competes successful women's escaped skating during the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships astatine TD Garden March 28, 2025, successful Boston. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Then she stepped away. Liu decided skating had go little of a joyousness and much of a job, and she wanted to absorption connected being a mean assemblage student. It wasn’t until she went connected a skis travel and felt the unreserved of contention — albeit successful a overmuch antithetic way, and with acold little stakes — that she began to deliberation astir a comeback.

Early past year, she made it authoritative with a cryptic station connected societal media. And portion the way backmost successful a notoriously fickle athletics was bumpy, Liu took a large measurement guardant with her second-place decorativeness to Glenn astatine the U.S. championships.

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She took the past measurement to the podium Friday night.

Gold medalist Alysa Liu of the U.S. poses for a photograph aft winning the women's satellite title during the 2025 ISU World Figure Skating Championships astatine TD Garden March 28, 2025, successful Boston.  (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

"I didn’t expect this. I didn’t person expectations coming in," Liu said. "I ne'er person expectations coming into competitions anymore. It’s moreso, ‘What tin I enactment retired performance-wise?’ I truly met my expectations connected my part."

Liu is present successful presumption to marque the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympic squad for the U.S. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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