Alysa Liu plans to bring back triple Axel for Olympic season
World figure skating champion Alysa Liu plans to reincorporate the triple Axel into her programs for the upcoming Olympic season.
In an interview with retired NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, Liu was asked, "What's the next technical statement that you're going to make?"
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"Yeah, I'm pretty risky on the ice," she said. "This (past) season, not as much, just because I was focusing on my stamina. But now that it's back, I'm going to be trying my triple Axels a lot more and incorporating those into my programs next season."
This past season, the 2022 Olympian Liu returned from a two-year retirement.
She worked her way up, entered the World Championships ranked eighth in the field by best total score on the season and then became the first U.S. women's singles skater to win a world title in 19 years.
'Personally, I can be so much better,' Liu said at worlds, reflecting on the season. 'That's why I call this a starter season because this season is me picking up the pieces."
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Liu is the youngest woman to land a triple Axel — at age 12 in 2018. She also landed a quadruple jump at age 14 — the first American woman to do so.
She attempted neither a triple Axel nor a quad in the 2024-25 season. She last attempted a triple Axel in competition at the 2022 World Championships and last landed a positively graded (clean) triple Axel at the 2020 World Junior Championships, according to Skatingscores.com.
But Liu did train the triple Axel in practices in the Bay Area last season.
The triple Axel carries 4.7 more base points than the double Axel, which can be a significant difference. Liu won the world title by 4.99 points over three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
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U.S. champion Amber Glenn was the lone woman to attempt a triple Axel at the 2025 World Championships, though a few others performed the jump at other senior competitions in 2024-25.
Such as Adeliya Petrosian, an 18-year-old from Russia who is shaping up to be a 2026 Olympic medal contender. She was the only senior women's singles skater in the world to land both a clean quadruple jump and a clean triple Axel in competition this past season, according to Skatingscores.com.
Petrosian competed strictly in domestic events in Russia since all Russian skaters have been banned from international competition since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.
Petrosian has been cleared by the International Skating Union to compete as an individual neutral athlete at an Olympic qualifier in September in China, where she could earn a spot for herself at the Milan Cortina Games.
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A skater from Russia won the last three Olympic women's singles titles. The U.S. last earned an Olympic women's singles medal in 2006 — Sasha Cohen's silver.
Figure skating Grand Prix assignments: Alysa Liu, Chock/Bates headline Skate America
The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating starts in October.
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