How Alysa Liu’s Mind-Blowing Gold Medal Performance Helped Amanda Anisimova Get Back to Her Roots

Amanda Anisimova has been through her share of hard times over the course of her career. While some players are built for the rigors of the tour, others, like Anisimova, need to carve their own path while still maintaining the sense of self that helps them be who they are.

These days, Anisimova, who admittedly still struggles to find that balance (though her recent level of play would make one think that every day is a walk in the park), has a new source of inspiration: gold medal figure skater Alysa Liu.

Anisimova, like so many Americans, was captivated while watching the Oakland, California native nab gold in the Milano-Cortina Olympics. It wasn’t just the medal, but the joie de vivre that she skated with, and the fact that Liu, like Anisimova, has had her own struggles.

Liu had breakout success as a 13-year-old and eventually needed to step away from the sport. Same for Anisimova, even if her initial rise came later, at the age of 17. For Anisimova, Liu’s story resonated and reminded her that you can live a life in sport on your own terms, no matter what anybody else says.

“I think she just has a good balance,” Anisimova said. “She doesn’t only train, train, train, and have to miss out on everything. I can agree with her on that. But you still have to balance the two or else you won’t perform at that level.”

24-year-old Anisimova, who will face Victoria Mboko in the round of 16, stepped away from the game for mental health reasons in May of 2023. Since her return she has become a tour de force on tour, reaching a pair of Grand Slam finals last year.

She says she found Liu’s story inspiring, and the joy and freedom that the Northern Californian skated with was something that helped her recenter.

“It was refreshing, because I feel I might have shifted a little bit away from that in the beginning of the year,” Anisimova explained. “I feel like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and trying to be like an overperfectionist in what I’m doing, and really try to improve. That kind of took away from everything that made my year last year what it was.”

“I thought it was very inspiring, and I like the fact that she’s still so young and she chose to be very independent and make decisions for herself,” Anisimova said. “She’s not going to do things the way others will tell her to do, and that was kind of my way of going into my career when I was coming back.

“I saw a lot of similarities. She’s definitely more on the extreme end, which I love. It looks like she doesn’t care about anything, and I absolutely love that, and it seems to be very much her personality.”

In the end, watching Liu rise to the occasion and skate like the wind has put wind in Anisimova’s sails.

“I feel like I really needed something like that to kind of remind myself that, yeah, life is short and try and enjoy what you’re doing, don’t take things too seriously. And with that, at least personally, results will come for me when I have that mindset.

“I really needed that. Even though she’s much younger than me, she’s very much a role model for me.”