At Her Home Rink, Gold-Medalist Alysa Liu Inspires Oakland Fans to Pick Up Skates

On Tuesday afternoon, Mia Pace laced up her skates at the Oakland Ice Center. The 11-year-old figure skater was antsy to get on the ice and run her program to the Barbie version of Perfect Day by Hoku.

Pace said she’s working on perfecting her salchow, a jump from the back of one foot to the other, as she prepares for her first competition this summer. She’s been taking lessons multiple times a week at the East Bay rink for about a year and a half, ever since she was introduced to videos of Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu’s figure skating performances.

“Somebody told me about Alysa Liu and how she skates, and I was just amazed by it,” she said. “I started watching all of her performances, and I was like, ‘I need to do this.’”

Pace said she wanted to take lessons at Oakland Ice Center because of Liu. It has been the Olympic star’s home rink and main training ground since she first enrolled in its “Learn to Skate” group lessons more than 15 years ago.

Pace also started taking group lessons through the same program and was quickly hooked.

“When I get on the ice, I feel like all my problems are gone for the day and I just am out there in my own world,” she told KQED.

Just inside the rink’s front doors in downtown Oakland, columns leading to the front desk and skate rental booths are plastered with Liu’s photo.

Larger-than-life printouts of her face pop out from porthole windows around the lobby, and a series of banners highlighting milestones of her career are draped from the ceiling above the ice.

On Thursday, Oakland is preparing to celebrate Liu’s homecoming from the Olympics, where she rose to global fame after earning the first gold in individual women’s skating for the U.S. since 2002, with a citywide rally expecting a turnout of 7,000 people. For the young skaters at Oakland Ice Center, though, she’s been a hometown hero for years.

“Alysa really inspires me,” said Haya Hayes, who has been taking lessons since she was four-and-a-half.

Hayes trains with Liu’s coaches, Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, through St. Moritz Ice Skating Club, which has been in the East Bay for almost a century, and has been based at Oakland Ice Center since 2006. Olympic and world champion Kristi Yamaguchi also rose through the club’s ranks.

Hayes said she wanted to start skating after her mom showed her videos of Liu, including her favorite: “Her program when she was eight years old,” she told KQED.

Last spring, when she was also eight, Hayes said she got first place in her own competition, performing to Fix You by Coldplay.

Since Liu skyrocketed to stardom in Milan earlier this year, making headlines with her bubbly demeanor, unique style and fun music choices, her influence has had ripples in the Bay Area’s ice skating community.

Pace said more people have been coming to skate at Oakland Ice Center, and the rink’s general manager, Glenn Martin, told KQED that there have been lots of fresh faces around, hoping to learn to skate or just catch a glimpse of Liu.

“It’s just been fully excitement,” he said from his office, where the windowsill is lined with more blown-up printouts of Liu’s face, along with framed photos of her as a young skater and other memorabilia from her career.

The enthusiasm isn’t unusual, he said. Every Olympic cycle, the center sees a boost of a couple of hundred people enrolling in its programs, from hockey and curling to ice skating.

“We did watch parties while she was there, and we had a room full of people watching it live on TV. It was a great time and that energy has just carried right on through,” he said.

Just after 5 p.m., the center geared up for its first Learn to Skate classes of the evening. The rink transformed from a quiet bustle of regulars taking private lessons and free skating to a lively flood of young athletes crowded around the lobby’s benches and floors, lacing up bright white skates and pulling on ear muffs and gloves.

Kids hobbled around on thin blades, greeting friends and impatiently clutching the walls of the rink, watching the Zamboni machine smooth over the ice.

“Figure skating definitely grows after the Olympics, because I feel that there’s people that get inspired after watching,” said Laura Lipetsky, who has been coaching group and private lessons at Oakland Ice Center since 1995. She taught Liu’s first group lessons in 2010 and worked with her in private lessons for a decade.

Liu, she said, “has been inspiring a lot of kids [to think] ‘Wow, it’s possible, and it’s someone that came from the Bay Area, the Oakland Ice Center.’” She said she’s had young students come to her and say, “I want to be a champion, too.”

Joyce Elangovan, 8, began skating two years ago in the same group lessons. Her mom had been a skater growing up in Minnesota, but said she had tried to keep that under wraps until Joyce started watching the sport on TV, and begged to take classes.

“I just figured I’d let her give it a shot and see if she liked it. And she has,” Kristen Odegaard told KQED. “She’s really driven it herself. Like, despite my love for it, she really loves it herself.”

Now, Elangovan also takes private lessons with Liu’s coach, DiGuglielmo, and has caught the competitive bug. Joyce grinned, remembering her last competition, when she ended her routine with a two-foot spin.

“It felt really good,” she said, to see her coaches and family excited for her.

Elangovan also loves getting to watch other skaters practicing at the rink — especially Liu.

“Most skaters aren’t as positive as her on the ice,” she said. “She’s always so fun and happy, and she is never hiding herself. It feels really fun to watch.”