Alysa Liu became the first U.S. woman in 24 years to win Olympic gold in figure skating at the 2026 Milan Games. She quit at 16 after Beijing, spent years traveling and studying psychology, then returned to skating on her own terms. Within two years she won Olympic gold with a career-best performance.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today, I do not have a framework for you, and I don't have a model or a system or a set of questions. None of that today. Today I just want to tell a story because I think that sometimes a story says it all and we could just, we could just leave it at that. I want to tell a story about Alyssa Liu. Alyssa is a figure skater. You probably met her over the past month, at least via the TV or video, as just a few days ago She stood on top of the podium at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, and she had a gold medal around her neck, and she was the first American woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating in 24 years. Now, here's what makes this story so remarkable. Less than 4 years ago, Alyssa Liu quit. She didn't quit because she wasn't good enough. She didn't quit because she got injured. She didn't quit because someone told her that she was done. She quit because she personally was broken and she was burned out. Alyssa started skating at 5 years old, and at, at 13, at the age of 13, she became the youngest US Women's Figure Skating Champion in history. She then made the Olympic team at 16. And by any measure, she was a, she was a prodigy. But behind the scenes, there was a lot going on. She was being told what to eat, she was being told what to wear, she was being told what music to skate to, when to train, when to rest, what to feel. And she lived alone in a dorm at the Olympic Training Center. And as a result, she was pretty miserable. Her father described it this way. He said she, she became really unhappy, that she avoided the ice rink at all costs. And he said, and these are, these are his words, she was traumatized. She was suffering from PTSD, and she wouldn't go near the ice rink. Now think about that. The thing that she had dedicated her entire life to, the thing that she had sacrificed her whole childhood for, she couldn't even be near it. So in April of 2022, at 16 years old, right after the, the Beijing Olympics, she announced her retirement. And she very much meant it. She didn't take a break. She just left. She got her driver's license and she started to go on road trips and she went to concerts and, and she, she hiked or trekked to Everest base camp in Nepal. And she enrolled at UCLA to study psychology. She even dyed her hair. She got a lip piercing. And by all accounts, she lived. And somewhere in, in all of that living, something shifted. She went on a family ski trip. And for the first time in years, she felt that, that feeling again, you know, that rush, that aliveness. And she said, I hadn't felt that adrenaline rush since I quit skating. It feels so similar to skiing. So she decides to call her old coach, a guy named Philip— I'm going to butcher his last name— Philip D is what we're going to call him. And she told him she wanted to come back. And his response to her was, please don't, like, respect your legacy. He wasn't trying to be cruel. He just really cared about her, genuinely cared about her. He didn't want to see her hurt herself again. But she was very persistent. They got on a Zoom call, they did that call for 2 hours, and Coach Phillips said he had several glasses of wine just to get through it, and she talked him into it. She talked him into coaching again. And then 7 months later, she won a world title. She won 6 of her first 12 events back on the ice. And then 2 weeks ago, a week and a half ago, it depends on when we air this, uh, in Milan. She skated to a Donna Summer song. She had platinum blonde streaks in her hair. She had a lip piercing and she had the biggest smile in the building. And she posted a career-best score. And that career-best score got her an Olympic gold. When she realized she had won, She didn't scream. She didn't collapse. She just kind of sat there. She was pretty still and she had this huge grin on her face. And then she looked at the camera and she said, that's what I'm talking about. Now I've been thinking about Alyssa's story for a little while now. And I think what makes it so powerful is that it's not just the comeback. It's why the comeback worked for Alyssa. See, the, the first time around, skating was not hers. It belonged to the coaches, belonged a bit to her father. There's a lot of backstory there. Belonged to the schedules and the expectations and the system. She had no ownership, she had no autonomy, and therefore she had no joy. And without those things, even the most talented person in the world eventually breaks. But when she came back, she came back on her own terms, and she chose her coach, and she chose the music, she chose the costume, she even chose when and how to train. And for the first time in her life, the ice actually belonged to Alyssa, and her best performance on earth came as a result. I think about this in the context of, of business. I think about the, the entrepreneurs that I have the opportunity to work with who are, who are grinding, but, but maybe the joy is a bit gone. You know, those entrepreneurs who are performing, but they're not really present. Even those individuals that I've worked with that have built something incredible, but somewhere along the way it stopped feeling like theirs. I think Alyssa Liu's story is a reminder that rest is not weakness. That stepping away is not necessarily quitting. And sometimes the path back to being your best runs directly through the decision to maybe just stop for a little while, just pause. And that performance, I think without joy, it's just not sustainable. It never was. It just never was. She quit at 16, but then she trekked Everest and she enrolled in college and she lived a life outside the ice. And then she came back and skated the program of her life and became an Olympic champion. Alysa Liu didn't find her gold medal by simply persevering or pushing through. She found it by walking away long enough to remember why she in fact loved it. I think it's just such a great story, especially for entrepreneurs to hear. I am not telling you to necessarily, you know, step away or take a break. I know when you're paying the bills. It's not as simple as that, but it does warrant maybe taking a moment away from, from some of the stuff that's been grinding on you. I did an episode, I think a week or two ago, on the one-day reset. Might be worth pulling that up because I think every once in a while, a break where you can reset and come back on your terms is all you really need. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
