Alysa Liu is taking a break from competitive figure skating, but not because she’s burned out.
The 21-year-old Olympic champion wrote on Instagram that she will be sitting out next year’s season to focus on personal growth and fine-tune her skating and artistry.
She told NBC Sports on Tuesday: “I really want to improve my skating, and I wanted to take the time to do that for myself and just to evolve, and then I’ll be back after that is done.”
It’s not uncommon for a public figure to announce a break from their work, but it’s almost always for health or personal reasons. Earlier this month, Ariana Grande’s people announced that she would be taking a break amid “endless, ongoing public scrutiny.” Simone Biles stepped away from gymnastics for two years until 2023, citing mental health concerns.
Liu is ostensibly doing the opposite: pacing herself so she doesn’t run herself into the ground. This is particularly notable for an athlete, whose career-spans are typically shorter.
Taking a step back while at the top of your game might seem counterintuitive, but her career trajectory suggests the opposite.
A preventative break
Liu retired from figure skating in 2022 at the age of 16, but returned two years later, with renewed vigor, and bagged gold at the 2025 World Championships. She went on to win two gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
“I loved that I was able to come back and choose my own destiny,” Liu told Olympics.com at the time. “I chose to be here,” she said.
Reflecting on the first time she stepped back, Liu has said in interviews that she was burned out, miserable, and felt disenfranchised at the time.
“I really hated skating when I quit. Like, I really didn’t like it,” Liu told the Associated Press in February. “I didn’t care about competitions. I didn’t care about places. I didn’t care about skaters. I didn’t care about my programs. I just wanted to, like, get away.”
This time, her tone is different. “I always want to challenge myself in new ways, so my artistry & skating can evolve. It’s important to me that my sport reflects my personal growth. I’m gonna take the time to recalibrate, fine-tune things & whatnot,” Liu wrote in an Instagram caption posted on August 26.
Liu’s preventive career break comes amid a moment of tension between companies in their “hardcore era,” and workers reevaluating their devotion to work. This summer a string of tech execs cited health problems in their resignation announcements, some expressing shock that their bodies couldn’t keep up with their work ethic.
We all know that rest is important, but it can be tempting to burn the candle at both ends to get things done, putting the potential longterm consequences to one side.
“Grit and endurance are not the only skills required to have impact over decades,” Fidji Simo, wrote on X in July when she resigned as the CEO of AGI at OpenAI. “Sometimes the harder thing is to stop, listen, and trust that taking care of yourself today makes it possible to contribute for much longer tomorrow.”
Off the back of Liu’s win-streak, and stealing the hearts of the nation with her nonconformist Gen Z aura and joie de vivre, you might expect her to keep striking while the iron is hot. Her decision not to could be what keeps her winning for years to come.
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