Alysa Liu’s Figure Skating Coach From San Francisco Says Her Next Lesson … Is Fame?

Longtime San Francisco figure skating coach Phillip DiGuglielmo recalled the day when his former athlete, Alysa Liu, asked to FaceTime. He said she asked him about getting back on the ice, two years after she had announced her retirement from the sport.

DiGuglielmo said he tried to talk her out of it.

“My heart sank a little bit because I knew what it means for an athlete who is at that level to come back,” he told KQED. “I was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to succeed and do something even better than that.”

Liu, the youngest woman to land a triple axel in international competition and the first woman to combine a quadruple jump with a triple axel, came out of retirement in 2024.

In collaboration with coach DiGuglielmo and choreographer Massimo Scali, the team charted a star-making course at the 2026 Milan Winter Games that helped the 20-year-old, who grew up in Richmond and trained in Oakland, become the first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold in her sport in the last 24 years.

“Alysa has that rare confluence of hard work, excellent jump technique, excellent performance ability and an ability to not see competition as this make-or-break moment for her, [rather] that competition is an opportunity to share her art with the audience,” he said.

DiGuglielmo talked about the rise of Liu’s stardom with KQED morning host Brian Watt, as the city of Oakland gears up for a Thursday pep rally to celebrate Liu. Their conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Brian Watt: In what way did you notice a difference in Alysa Liu between pre- and post-retirement?

Phillip DiGuglielmo: Before she retired, she was your little model athlete. She did exactly what every coach ever asked her to. She tried as hard as she could. She succeeded at almost everything she tried. But I don’t think that we ever got to see who Alysa Liu was.

Now, when she’s come back, the magic about her is that you get to see who she is as the athlete. There were around 13,000 people in the [Milano Ice Skating Arena].

Those are the people she was performing for, but she was also performing for her family and for the millions of people watching on TV or Instagram or wherever they consume their media. She feels like she just wants to show her art, and it comes across in a different way than the other athletes that we have in our sport.

What is it about her style? She’s called the queen of the triple axels, but what else is she doing?

Because she’s taken ownership of her sport, of her performances, of her training, it just comes from inside of her. It’s not about the coaches and not the training facility. It’s only about Alysa trying to do the best that she can, and all of our whole team supporting her.

Take us back to the Winter Olympics in Milan. What moment stands out to you?

Alyssa in this crazy gold sequined dress that looks like she just walked out of Studio 54 in 1978. Donna Summer’s “MacArthur Park” is playing, and the whole crowd gets into that vibe.

It’s like she is skating around, floating on the ice, doing these difficult triple combinations. The spins, the step sequences and the split jumps are all perfectly on the music.

The audience feels like they are part of it. At the end, she grabs her foot and pulls it above her head, and it turns into like a disco ball.

She ends in this pose with her right arm up with her finger pointing straight up to the sky, No.1.

Now that that has all happened, what are you hearing from her? She’s become a star known around the world. And I imagine that there’s more joy that comes with that, but also a lot of pressure.

She is worried for these next few months. Being recognized on the street, everywhere she goes. She’ll be able to handle it with time, but it’s going to be a challenge.

She’s very busy, and she’s bringing a lot of attention to figure skating. Alysa has some new lessons to learn — how to balance this kind of attention. I don’t want to say “fame,” but maybe it is fame.

Clarification: Alysa Liu has said on social media that her family moved around a lot to various places, including Richmond. Liu has said she spent most of her life in Oakland.