While in Nagoya at the Grand Prix Final, Amber Glenn was on an extracurricular mission. She wanted to check out a store to find a niche card game, one of her hobbies. One of the personal cubbyholes into which she darts off-ice. Said Alysa Liu: “Can I come with you?” So the two top American […]
Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu: Riding a Sunbeam
Alysa Liu is just cut from a different cloth. She astounded the world when she did off-the-wall things like land a triple Axel, then a triple Axel-triple toe loop when she was a 13-year-old junior. At a Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid in August of 2019 – when she was only 14 – she […]
Alysa Liu, and the Impossible Dream
“What the hell?” said she, who had just accomplished the impossible. Seconds before Alysa Liu finished her MacArthur Park free program at the world figure skating championships, the crowd of more than 19,000 in the TD Centre in Boston, stood up as one, screaming for her. They broke the sound barrier. “What the hell?” Liu […]
Amber Glenn, Getting the Hang of It.
The U.S. championship this week served as a test of all tests for Amber Glenn. Her career had never rolled like syrup over a pancake. Her tears and her anguish welled up at every turn, heart as brittle as yesterday’s crackers. She skated hopefully in the dim corners, weighed down by everything. Then she won […]
The Newest Face of Russian Women
Before any talk of triple Axels or quads or such, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva stepped out onto the ice at the start of her short program at Skate Canada and did something seemingly quite simple. But astonishing nonetheless. Dressed in rose froth, the 15-year-old Russian stretched out a leg far, far up and behind her, up […]