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Figure Skater Alysa Liu Says Balancing Sport and Social Life Is 'Easy' Because She Skates with Friends

Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu

Joosep Martinson - International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images Alysa Liu

Alysa Liu says being a figure skating champion doesn't slow down her social life.

Earlier this month — during the Team USA Beijing Winter Olympics media summit — Liu, 16, discussed how she balances training at an elite label and normal teenage activities and responsibilities.

"I have Sundays off and half of Saturdays off, and I train with my friends," explained Liu. "So it's pretty easy going with balancing my training life and then my social life because I skate with my friends and then I hang out with them on the weekends."

It helps, she said, that she attended "online school all of high school because my training schedule was just too hard to deal with regular school. So I did online school and I graduated high school in June. Now that that's over with, I'm a lot less stressed out so it's a lot easier to focus on training."

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Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu

Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Alysa Liu

Hopefully, in just under 100 days, Liu will be competing in her first Olympic Games as a member of Team USA's figure skating team.

She previously became the youngest U.S. women's figure skating champion in history in Jan. 2019 at only 13.

During her U.S. Figure Skating Championships routine that year, Liu landed two triple axels. She was only the fourth American female to land a triple axel in competition, after Tonya Harding in 1991, Kimmie Meissner in 2005 and Mirai Nagasu at the Olympics in 2018. In addition, Liu was the first to make two.

She upheld her title in 2020.

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Before Liu, Tara Lipinski held the record for the youngest U.S. women's champion. She won at age 14. The athlete was a commentator during the event.

To learn more about all the Olympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning February 3 on NBC.