Alysa Liu became a Internet sensation during last month's Winter Olympic Games, winning gold medal in figure skating and the hearts of million of people, enthusiastic about her charisma and contagious good attitude, and the personal success that the gold medal carried: the 20-year-old American skater had decided to retire when she was just 16, after the last Winter Olympics in 2022, due to burnout, but returned stronger than ever.
Her inspiring story has reached other sports, and tennis players Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff said that she was an inspiration. "I haven't spoken to her ... but it's really inspiring. I'll remember it for a long time", said World No. 2 Swiatek in an interview before Indian Wells, saying she already followed Liu before her retirement four years ago.
"I saw Liu winning when actually she had some troubles, like before she was burned out and she had to stop, and now she seems like everything she does, she does to have fun and to really show her amazing skills in a way that makes her happy", said Swiatek, describing her success as "super interesting from a psychological point of view" (via Reuters).
As somebody who also became well known at an extremely young age, when she qualified for Wimbledon 2019 at just 15 years old, World No. 4 Coco Gauff said that she could understand what Liu went through, and her whole story was "super inspiring". "I wouldn't say I've faced burnout, but there are times you're mentally just tired of it and you feel like you're doing stuff and you don't know why. I was happy to see her be that voice saying the unsaid things that athletes think but are maybe scared to say.""