Health Update: Health Update: Alysa Liu, mental health, Amber Glenn, Ilia Malinin, Olympics comeback – What Experts Say– What Experts Say.
Olympic legend Katarina Witt on pressure surrounding Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Katarina Witt gives her take on Olympic pressure and how it has affected Amber Glenn and Ilia Malinin.
“Heyyyyy so I’m here to announce that I am retiring from skating.”
That is how Alysa Liu, in true Gen Z fashion, announced her retirement in a since-deleted Instagram post. The then 16-year-old had just finished fifth at the Beijing Olympics, and the sport was no longer fun.
Four years later, Liu has completed a comeback story for the ages, capped off by her Olympic gold medal win in the women’s singles event on Wednesday.
On Feb. 19, a generation of skaters who have never seen an American woman on the Olympic podium in their lifetime watched Liu take gold. Even to the casual viewer, Liu seemed to float through the program, completing triple-triple combinations and dizzying spins with ease.
With it, she sent a message to skaters and viewers everywhere that mental health was a key part of her journey. It’s a watershed moment for a sport that in recent years has been plagued by issues with sexual assault, doping scandals and the epidemic of eating disorders among its athletes.
“She is breaking a barrier,” says sports psychologist Michael Gervais, who has worked with athletes across four Olympics. “She is teaching us all in real time what it means to work from the inside out.”
Here’s what Liu’s win means to former skaters
When Liu retired in 2022, a comeback was off the table. At the time, she was suffering from such intense PTSD that she wouldn’t go near the ice rink.
When she came back, she decided things would be different: she would pick her music and costumes. No one was going to put her on a diet. And she wasn’t going to miss out on movie nights with her friends just because she had practice the next morning.
In Milan, Liu repeatedly shot down questions about what it would mean to win a medal. She focused on sharing her artistry with the world, and in the end, the approach paid off.
“I hope that with all this attention I can at least raise awareness about mental health in sports,” Liu told reporters after her win.
The message won’t just resonate for young skaters. It’s healing for retired athletes who grew up thinking they had to fit a certain mold, defined by iconic skaters like Nancy Kerrigan and, most prominently in my days, Gracie Gold: thin, graceful, poised in interviews.
I know, because I was one of them. I competed and then coached skating over the course of 10 years. Even at the amateur level, the sport demands everything: waking up at 4 a.m. to squeeze in extra training before returning after the school day, planning family vacations around access to ice and getting class exemptions for training. Throughout middle school, I spent more time with my figure skating coaches on weekdays than my parents.
And in a sport where your body is your artwork, looking the part with costume, makeup and physique becomes everything at a young age, too.
Those early memories around body image — like the time a costume designer told me as a tween that I was too curvy to wear a jumpsuit, and should instead stay with a dress — stick with you. Before I even had a driver’s permit, I was worried my “thunder thighs” looked bulky on the ice.
Liu sends a new message: champions can look strong and healthy. They can take breaks and come back. And they can prioritize their mental health.
It’s especially refreshing after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where 15-year-old Kamila Valieva triggered one of the largest doping scandals in the sport’s history, underscoring the lengths some will go for gold. Teenage athletes, whose bodies are pushed to the breaking point and then shuffled out of the sport when new talent arises, bear the brunt of the pressure.
Liu didn’t perform any quads. She didn’t need them. Her artistry and ease on the ice spoke for itself, reminding skaters around the world why they fell in love with the sport in the first place.
Ilia Malinin, Amber Glenn, and when the pressure becomes too much
Liu’s performance came just short of a week after men’s gold-medal favorite Ilia Malinin delivered a shocking performance riddled with mistakes, taking him out of podium contention and into eighth place.
The “Quad God” told reporters after the performance that before the skate, he felt like “all the traumatic moments of my life really just started flooding my head.”
“People only realized the pressure and the nerves that actually happened from the inside. It was really just something that overwhelmed me,” he said. “I just felt like I had no control.”
On the women’s side, Amber Glenn mounted a comeback of her own, rising from 13th after a disappointing short program to finish fifth.
A decade ago, Glenn might have thought the feat was impossible. She was battling depression, anxiety and an eating disorder, and at her lowest point, “didn’t want to be on this Earth anymore.”
She has since become a strong advocate for mental health on social media. As the first openly queer woman on a U.S. Olympic singles team, she has pushed the boundaries of representation in the sport.
Sports psychologist Julie Hayden says the moment represents a turning point.
“We can really make some movement and help improve the youth experience and train that next generation to really lean in and have that autonomy and confidence to speak up for themselves and seek out and attain the help that they need,” Hayden says.
Liu did things her way. It sends an important message to athletes everywhere
My sport has a long way to go, but it’s making strides. To put into perspective for new fans how traditional the sport is, skating with lyrics in songs wasn’t allowed until 2014. The expectation that struggles are supposed to be pushed under the rug is slowly changing, and so too is the cookie-cutter mold of what a figure skater should look and sound like.
Liu — who sports halo hair, has been vocal about her progressive politics, and swore on camera after winning — has flipped the stereotype on its head, forcing figure skating to move along with the tide.
“The more autonomy an athlete has, the more motivated they will be,” Hayden says. “The empowerment piece to really have control over their training is utterly important for success.”
Moreover, Hayden says Liu, Malinin and Glenn have opened up a much-needed conversation about the connection of mental and physical health. I hope that shift trickles down. As a skater, I worked with jumps specialists and took ballet classes for my artistry. Why not add a sports psychologist to a training team at younger ages?
On Saturday, Liu and Malinin will star with other skaters in the Exhibition Gala, and Malinin has hinted that mental health will take center stage in his performance.
My childhood spent skating provided a strong foundation in work ethic, camaraderie and resilience for the future, and I’m a better journalist because of it. But I can’t help but feel appreciative of the way the sport has evolved since I retired.
Regardless of where Liu’s journey takes her next, for this Gen Z reporter, seeing Liu win felt personal. I’m hopeful for this new generation of skaters who will see prioritizing mental health as being in tandem with success — not in opposition to it.
Rachel Hale’s role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@usatoday.com and @rachelleighhale on X.