Alysa Liu became the first American woman to win the World Figure Skating Championships in 19 years on Friday night in Boston with a free skate in which she landed seven clean triple jumps.
The free skate and her short program gave Liu a cumulative 222.97 points, which put her 4.99 points ahead of Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who had won the past three World championships. Mone Chiba, also of Japan, finished third for bronze.
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“I’m not going to lie, this an insane story,” Liu said to NBC Sports. “I don’t know how I came back to be world champion.”
Liu returned to competition after retiring in 2022. She became the youngest U.S. champion ever in 2019 as a 13-year-old. But after competing in the Beijing Winter Olympics and World championships, she walked away at 16 years old, saying figure skating felt like a job. Now 19 and a sophomore at UCLA, she will lead a United States contingent with Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn that could compete for gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.
With the victory, Liu is the first U.S. women’s singles skater since Kimmie Meissner in 2006 to win a World championship. She joins a group of U.S. female figure skaters that includes Tenley Albright, Carol Heiss, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Linda Fratianne, Elaine Zayak, Rosalynn Sumners, Jill Trenary, Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski.
“Even [Wednesday], I didn’t expect this,” she told reporters afterwards, via CNN. “I didn’t have expectations coming in. I never have expectations coming into competitions anymore. It’s more so what I can put out performance-wise and I really met my expectations on that part today.”
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The 2025 World Figure Skating Championships will conclude on Saturday with the ice dance and men’s finals and the United States in position to win gold in both competitions.
Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates currently hold the lead are in position to win their third World title after a 90.18 score in the rhythm dance and lead Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier by 3.74 points going into Saturday’s free dance competition. Ilia Malinin earned a 110.41 in the men’s short program and holds a 3.32-point lead over Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama before the free skate.
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