MILAN — Alysa Liu is the only one who can carry the aspirations of the "Blade Angels" into the women's free skate at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
After the short program on Tuesday night, the incumbent world champion was the only one of America's famous figure skating trio who was still in the running for gold. Liu did a triple lutz-triple loop, which was the toughest combination any woman tried. She was only two points behind leader Ami Nakai and immediately behind her Japanese teammate Kaori Sakamoto on the rankings.
Liu remarked, "I'm really happy with how I skated. A lot of my family, my best friends, and my siblings are out there." And I saw them during the warm-up. I spotted them throughout my show too, so I don't know. It was a really great experience because they never come to watch like this. I'm incredibly happy that I did so well. "I felt really grounded and connected with my program in a new way."
Things didn't go quite as well for the rest of the American team on Tuesday night.
Isabeau Levito lost points for not spinning her triple loop enough and for her step sequence, which is where she usually gets points on the competition. It put her in seventh place, which meant she had a long way to go to get to the podium on Thursday night.
Amber Glenn, who has won the U.S. championship three times in a row, was in the running for a medal until her last jump.
After landing a massive opening triple axel, which only Glenn and Nakai tried in the women's field, she kept the momentum going with a triple flip-triple toe loop. But something didn't seem right when Glenn got close to a triple loop, and she ended up pulling out of it. The double loop that came out of it was no longer valid and didn't give her any points.
The seven or eight points lost on the jump made it impossible to win a medal.
"I had it," Glenn said to her coach, Damon Allen, as she stepped off the rink and struggled to fight back the tears.
"It's not over," he said, hugging her.
It was definitely not how Glenn expected to end a night that started with the excitement of getting a message from Madonna, the "Queen of Pop." Madonna sent Glenn a video asking her to "Go get that gold" after seeing a tape of her short program. "Like a Prayer" is the song that plays throughout Glenn's free skate.
On the first weekend of the Winter Games, Glenn already got one from the team event. Liu also has one from the event.
Liu now has to decide if the Americans will win a medal in the individual competition.
She can also save what has been a mostly disappointing Olympics for U.S. Figure Skating. Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the team event, but they only got a silver medal because of some strange scoring by the French judge. Ilia Malinin, a two-time world champion and Olympic favorite, fell out of the men's free skate.
Liu has been here before; he came in sixth at the 2022 Beijing Games. She also has a relaxed attitude now that she's back from a short retirement. During that time, she learned a lot about herself and put figure skating in perspective.
People questioned Liu if she thinks she can beat the Japanese on Thursday night.
She said, "I don't think about things like that." "Winning or losing isn't my goal. I just want to do my programs and tell my narrative. I don't need to be better or worse than anyone else to do that.
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