Alysa Liu completed her stunning comeback to competitive figure skating with a world championship title on Friday night in Boston, becoming the first American woman to win the sport’s biggest competition outside the Olympics in nearly two decades.
The 19-year-old from Clovis, California, who vanished from the sport nearly three years ago uncertain if she’d ever return, delivered a spellbinding free skate inside a sold-out TD Garden to dethrone three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. Skating in a shimmering gold dress to the pulsing sounds of Boston-born Donna Summer, Liu landed all of her jumps cleanly and drew a standing ovation before finishing with 222.97 points overall – enough to secure gold in front of a rollicking home crowd.
Schedule
All times EST.
Wed 26 Mar
• Women's Short, 12.05pm (Peacock)
• Women's Short, 3pm (USA Network)
• Remembrance Ceremony, 6.15pm (Peacock)
• Pairs' Short, 6.45pm (Peacock)
Thu 27 Mar
• Men's Short, 11.05am (Peacock)
• Men's Short, 3pm (USA Network)
• Pairs' Free, 6.15pm (Peacock)
• Pairs' Free, 8pm (USA Network)
Fri 28 Mar
• Rhythm Dance, 11.15am (Peacock)
• Rhythm Dance, 3pm (USA Network)
• Women's Free, 6pm (Peacock)
• Women's Free, 8pm (NBC/Peacock)
Sat 29 Mar
• Free Dance, 1.30pm (Peacock)
• Free Dance, 3pm (USA Network)
• Men's Free, 6pm (Peacock)
• Men's Free, 8pm (NBC/Peacock)
Sun 30 Mar
• Exhibition Gala, 2pm (Peacock)
How to watch outside the US
United Kingdom
As of last year, Premier Sports holds the broadcasting rights for the World Figure Skating Championships in the UK, with coverage extending until 2028. To watch the championships, you'll need a subscription to Premier Sports, which offers live coverage of the events. You can subscribe through their official website or via certain TV providers that include Premier Sports in their packages.
Australia
SBS provides live and free coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships in Australia through SBS On Demand.
As her score was announced, Liu appeared visibly shocked in the kiss-and-cry area while embraced by her coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, from either side.
“What the hell?” Liu said, still catching her breath. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to process this.”
It's not a dream, Alysa Liu, you are the new 🏆 WORLD CHAMPION 🏆. What a comeback! What a night of skating these women gave us! 🤩⛸️👏
— ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) March 29, 2025
#FigureSkating #WorldFigure pic.twitter.com/AUcOg2WI82
Sakamoto finished with 217.98 points over both segments to take silver, her lone mistake Friday coming when she two-footed the landing on a combination early in the routine. Japan’s Mone Chiba took the bronze with 215.24 after a composed and elegant program with small errors on two of her triples. Just behind, the Americans Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn placed fourth and fifth respectively, marking the first time since 2001 that the US had three women finish in the top five at a world championship.
But the night belonged to Liu. Her clean, confident performance to Summer’s disco epic MacArthur Park Suite featured seven triple jumps, including three in combination, connected by high-velocity step sequences and fluid transitions that brought the crowd to its feet. By the time she closed with a graceful layback spin, the 17,850-seat arena was a white-hot wall of sound.
“I’m not going to lie, this is an insane story,” Liu said. “I don’t know how I came back to be world champion.”
Liu became the first US women’s singles skater to win the world title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006, and just the second American to win any medal in the event since then. That it came in a city still mourning the recent loss of six local skating figures in a January plane crash only heightened the emotional stakes.
The outcome was the culmination of one of the most unusual arcs in the sport’s history. Liu burst onto the scene in 2019 as the youngest ever US national champion aged 13 before repeating the feat a year later, then competed at the 2022 Olympics and won bronze at that year’s worlds – before abruptly retiring that same spring, citing fatigue and burnout.
She stayed away for nearly two years. But by mid-2023, she was back training quietly in California, with eyes on rediscovering joy in the sport and possibly targeting the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
“Personally, I can be so much better,” she said after winning Friday’s short program with a career-best score. “That’s why I call this a starter season, because this season is me picking up the pieces. So I don’t know how I just did this.”
While Liu’s gold provided the high point, the rest of the American contingent also delivered. Levito, last year’s world silver medallist, produced a strong comeback free skate after a fall on her opening triple flip-triple toeloop combination, scoring 209.84 overall to finish fourth in her return from a foot injury that kept her sidelined much of the season.
Glenn, who went off on Wednesday as one of the favorites after an undefeated Grand Prix season but finished ninth in the short after falling on her signature triple Axel, climbed from ninth after the short program to finish fifth with 205.65, marking her best ever result at a world championship. The 25-year-old was the only woman in the field to attempt the triple Axel in the free skate. Though it wasn’t landed cleanly, she showed resilience and composure throughout the program.
“I was really proud of the fight that I had out there,” Glenn said. “That I stayed calm and that I finished on a positive note on the season.”
Sakamoto, bidding to become the first woman to win four consecutive world titles since the American great Carol Heiss bagged five straight from 1956 through 1960, rallied with a powerful free skate that scored 147.00 – just short of Liu’s mark.
Chiba, too, had much to celebrate. Her bronze marks her first podium finish at a world championship and caps a season in which she’s shown growing maturity and presence. Her 139.44-point free skate was clean and artistically rich, helping to ensure Japan placed two skaters on the podium.
With the continued absence of Russian athletes – banned from international competition due to the ongoing war in Ukraine – the women’s field remains in flux. But for Liu, who returned not to chase medals but to rediscover her love of skating, that shifting landscape made her moment possible.
Earlier Friday afternoon, the American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates posted the world’s highest rhythm dance score in two years in their chase of a third consecutive world title, beating out Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier and Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson ahead of Saturday’s free dance.
