Bringing Style to Sports

By: Annabel Adams Edited by: Abigail Seltzer 

All eyes are on 20-year-old figure skater Alysa Liu since she returned to the ice after a 4-year hiatus and made it to the 2026 Winter Olympics with a series of stunning victories. Liu draws attention not just for her mastery in skating, but also for the distinct alternative style and creativity that she brings to the ice, sporting zebra-dyed black-and-white hair and a smiley piercing on her upper lip. Amongst other uniform skaters, Liu stands out like a beacon of authenticity.

Fetch Collective spoke with Anna Ryan, a freshman at Syracuse University and member of the competitive figure skating team. She shared that she’d been “skating basically since [she] could walk,” since her mom is a figure skating coach. Ryan is a very decorated figure skater, with three national championship titles and four world championship titles under her belt.

Ryan reflected on her knowledge of Liu's early career and her current prominence at only 20-years-old stating, “I remember when she was first breaking through in figure skating, [and] she was 13 I think...she was the youngest US national champion and nobody expected her to win. She came out of, like, nowhere.” She continued to cite Liu as a “huge inspiration” in her skating career, commending her creativity and assertiveness.

Ditching the common lavender and sheer blue costumes, Liu sports a black dress with flames rising from the skirt to her chest while taking the ice. She can also be spotted at practice wearing a black turtle-neck dress paired with leopard print tights and black leg-warmers; an atypical look compared to the traditional pastels commonly associated with the sport. 

Ryan mentioned how Liu strays from the “ice princess” stereotype, the notion that all female figure skaters must be dainty, slender and extremely feminine. “Everybody looks up to her because she just does what she wants,” Ryan said. “She's…very much not in the ice princess stereotype. And that's exactly where she wants to be.”

Liu’s commitment to her personal alternative style on and off the ice is already inspiring other young figure skaters to play around with their style in the sport. “She has this one outfit that she always wears for practice…now I'm seeing that all over the rink because everybody wants to be like Alysa,” Ryan said. “Everybody wants to practice like her, maybe they'll compete like her.”

But Liu doesn’t just take charge when it comes to fashion. In fact, she insists on getting her hands on the creative process of her routine. She works closely with her choreographer and costume designer, choosing her program music and costume. In an interview with Elle magazine, Liu considered her own creative involvement stating, “I’m so into fashion, and I love being able to control little things. Even my training outfits, I get to choose now. Before, I didn’t. Isn’t that crazy? But now I do.” 

Ryan shared that having this much creative freedom at the Olympic level is somewhat unprecedented, displaying how serious Liu is about her career functioning alongside her creativity. “You don't really get a lot of say in your programs when you're that high of level,” Ryan said. “It's mainly up to your coaches and what they want to see you perform.”

Similarly, Liu took a hold of something that’s been present in the sport for a long time: control over athletes’ bodies. “All of the coaches and even the audience just push for a perfect image out there,” Ryan said. “They want to see somebody that looks a certain way and they can't have anybody over a certain weight or [with] a certain hair color.”

Wanting to reclaim the joy she gets from figure skating, Liu decided that she wouldn’t give in to these pressures if she’s going to keep competing.

Coming back from retirement, Liu no longer wanted to blindly follow authority and leave her career in someone else’s hands. She shared how coaches would tell her what to wear, eat, and drink, and lectured her about water-weight. “I didn’t enjoy skating back then because I didn’t make my own programs, I didn’t design my own dresses—I was just following orders,” Liu said. She decided that her career would be different this time.

So far in the 2026 Winter Olympics, the United States’ figure skating team won gold in the team competition. Liu will compete on Feb. 17 and 19 in the women’s short program and free skate.

© 2026 by FETCH COLLECTIVE