Alysa Liu, from farewell to the ice to Olympic gold in skating

If you could be reborn and had to choose between a cow and a chicken, which animal would you want to be? It's a question that Alysa Liu - the American skater who enchanted the Milan Ice Skating Arena first in the team competition and then in the women's singles, both times climbing the first step of the Olympic podium in Milan Cortina - thought about a lot when, in 2023, she and a friend were climbing the Himalayas. And she has no doubts: she would like to be a cow. Because, as CNN writes, 'cows wander around quietly, graze grass when they feel like it, and the world is their personal feeding trough'. All the chickens she has ever seen in her life, by contrast, lived in cages. And Alysa just doesn't want to be in a cage.

Born in 2005, she is the daughter of a man who fled China after taking part in the Tiananmen Square protest movements, who landed in California and built a family as a single father with five children, all born through surrogacy. Alysa is the eldest. She began skating at the age of 5, on her father's advice. She immediately emerged in category competitions, and at the age of 13, she was the youngest athlete to win an overall figure skating championship in the United States, surrounded by fellow seniors. To get on the podium during the award ceremony, she will need the help of her opponents, because it is too high for her. The following year, again: gold at nationals. She then enters the Olympic expedition, which at the age of 16, in Beijing 2022, sees her sixth. A few weeks later, however, in Montpellier, Alysa Liu hits the podium: she is gold at the World Championships. She makes America dream, which has not boasted female skaters at the top of the world rankings for a while, and she blows everyone away: on Instagram - as a child of her time - in a post that starts with 'heyyyy', because after all she is only 16, she announces her retirement.

A choice matured because she is about to start college - where she will study psychology - and dreams of living it lightly, like any girl her age. But also because - as she tells the US format 60 Minutes - the Covid pandemic, which for a while in 2020 shut down all the arenas, has changed something in her: for the first time, after years spent training every day, all day long, she finds herself standing still. At home, in her tracksuit, without crystal-covered costumes or skates on her feet. 'So this is what it feels like when you take a break,' she tells the interviewer with a laugh. And she doesn't mind at all. She tells, with a knowing smile that hints at a lip piercing that traces two arrows on her teeth, of "a very abnormal childhood", spent entirely on skating rinks. Asked if it was a job, she replies that at that age you don't really know what you want, that 'skating was more of a responsibility, almost a burden'. He admits that he hoped the ice rinks would never reopen. But the arenas have reopened, and she is back. In the Olympic team, for Beijing 2022, and for the world championships in Montpellier. Capable, trained, a winner. But no joy in skating, after 11 years spent growing up with trainers telling her what music to play on the rink, what not to eat, even not to drink too much "because even water weighs".

Alysa Liu closes her social channels, not to see or hear about skating for a while. She self-exiled from the world of ice for two years: she studied, began to take long walks in the mountains - she climbed Mount Everest with a friend and her mum, deciding that if she were ever to be reincarnated she would like to be a cow, in fact - developed a passion for photography and 3D puzzles. She experimented with different hair colours: her socials - now active again - portray her with brown hair, then reddish, then fuchsia, then again with the characteristic striped hair that accompanied her to the Games.

When she lacks a bit of adrenalin, without saying anything to anyone, she tries to get back on her skates. And the emotions of when she was a child come flooding back. She calls her old coach, Philip DiGuglielmo. Who tries to dissuade her, because in figure skating two years of stop is a long time and "those who have tried to come back have always failed", he says. "But I'm only 18," she replies. And from there she starts again. With the aim of returning to competition, but to her own rules. With the freedom to listen to her body and decide when to train more and when she needs a break. With the desire to also contribute to the creative process of her programmes on ice: what music to choose, what costumes to wear. Flanked also by the Italian choreographer Massimo Scali, she is back on the international stage and stuns again:it is a golden return her - like the costume she wears and the medal she grabs - to the World Ice Skating Championships in Boston in the 2024/2025 season. From there to Milan Cortina 2026 is an instant: this time too, the costume worn is golden and glittering. And this time too, the medal is of the most precious metal.