Alysa Liu: The Rolling Stone Interview

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Rolling Stone

Music, Music Interviews, Music Commentary

4.0 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Olympic champion Alysa Liu joins The Rolling Stone Interview to reflect on the unlikely path of her career. In a candid conversation with Rolling Stone senior writer Alex Morris, Liu looks back on rocketing to the top of figure skating as a teenager before shocking the sport by walking away at 16 – only to return on her own terms. She opens up about the pressures that shaped her early rise, the freedom she found outside the rink, and what it means to finally take control of her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Rolling Stone interview podcast.
0:02.5	I'm Alex Morris, senior writer at Rolling Stone.
0:05.3	We sat down with figure skating phenom, Alyssa Liu.
0:08.6	After winning two gold medals at the 2026 Olympics,
0:11.5	she spoke with us about retiring at 16, falling back in love with the sport,
0:15.6	and finally taking creative control of her career.
0:18.2	You can watch the full conversation on Rolling Stone's YouTube
0:21.0	channel and Spotify video or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Please enjoy. Hi, I'm Alex Morris. I'm a senior
0:27.9	writer at Rolling Stone magazine. Alyssa Liu, welcome to the Rolling Stone interview. Thank you so much.
0:34.1	It's so nice to have you here. Yes, I'm excited to be here. So a little over a week ago, you became the first U.S. women's figure skater to win a
0:43.3	gold medal at the Olympics since 2002, which was three years before you were born.
0:50.3	Please tell me that you have had a chance to like truly go out and celebrate i mean for me the
0:56.1	celebration was when i was out there on the ice uh right after i performed i was really happy i
1:02.2	got to hug my coaches um that was like my celebration that's all i need you i mean you seemed
1:07.5	very happy yeah but you didn't do any like you didn't that was it you go back to your room in olympic. Yeah. But you didn't do any, like you didn't, that was it.
1:11.3	You go back to your room in Olympic Village.
1:13.4	And like, were you- I didn't go back to my room at all that night. Media, ton of media. All night long. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That doesn't sound like a party. No, it wasn't a party. So I, yeah, I didn't really do anything.
1:27.3	But I did meet up with, like, other athletes the night before closing ceremony.
1:32.0	And we celebrated together a little bit.
1:34.5	But that's it.
1:36.0	What'd you do?
1:37.0	How'd you celebrate?
	...

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