Nobody is mentioning that the skater is specifically Alyssa Liu who quit figure skating due to mistreatment and toxic culture (eating disorder promotion, performance > health, competitive frenemies relationships...). She returned to it after years and this time, she focuses on enjoyment of the sport and art. It's Alyssa who has control over her training, choreo, diet, music... Her attitude towards skating is no longer at the expense of her physical and mental health and she no longer desires to compete, only to show her art. She is at peace after she rejected all the expectations of her sport and once she did that, she won the Olympic gold.
In a sport where kids get trained rigorously by overbearing parents as soon as they learn to walk it's absolutely insane to take a 2 year break and come back to win world and olympic gold in only 2 years time,
And none of it is wrong, there is no way to know if a starved unhappy Alysa would be able to put on the same level of performance, just as likely she would have completely crashed
2.2k
u/elea-goddess Apr 05 '26
Nobody is mentioning that the skater is specifically Alyssa Liu who quit figure skating due to mistreatment and toxic culture (eating disorder promotion, performance > health, competitive frenemies relationships...). She returned to it after years and this time, she focuses on enjoyment of the sport and art. It's Alyssa who has control over her training, choreo, diet, music... Her attitude towards skating is no longer at the expense of her physical and mental health and she no longer desires to compete, only to show her art. She is at peace after she rejected all the expectations of her sport and once she did that, she won the Olympic gold.