- Last month it was reported that US Olympic skater
Alysa Liu was named in a DOJ case about alleged Chinese spying. - Just weeks later, 16-year-old Liu has announced her retirement from the sport.
Alysa Liu, a figure skater widely regarded as one of the sport's brightest talents in the US, retired at the age of just 16.
Liu announced she would bow out of elite figure skating in an Instagram post Saturday, saying she had reached all her goals in the sport, and is "satisfied" with her career, which included a trip to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
"Heyyyyy so I'm here to announce that I am retiring from skating," she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post Saturday.
"I started skating when I was 5 so that's about 11 years on the ice and it's been an insane 11 years. A lot of good and a lot of bad but yk [you know] that's just how it is. I've made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I'll have for the rest of my life.
"I honestly never thought I would've accomplished as much as I did LMAOO I'm so happy. I feel so satisfied with how my skating career has gone. Now that I'm finally done with my goals in skating I'm going to be moving on with my life."
Liu went on to say that she intends to spend time with her family and study following her retirement.
"[For real] this skating thing has taught me a lot more about life than I anticipated. I'm really glad I skated," she concluded.
Liu's retirement comes under a month after her father revealed that she had been embroiled in an apparent Chinese spying scsandal.
It is unclear if her retirement was linked to the spying scandal.
Liu's father, Arthur, told the Associated Press in March that he had been named in a Justice Department case in which five men were accused of acting for the Chinese government to stalk and harass Chinese dissidents living in the United States. Arthur Liu was one of the dissidents who was harassed, he told the AP.
He said he was "Dissident 3" in the criminal complaint and that his daughter was referred to as "family member" in the court documents.
Arthur Liu, who came to the US after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, was alerted to the case by the FBI in October 2021, Insider's Rebecca Cohen previously reported.
He then received a call in November 2021 from a man claiming to be a US Olympic official, who asked for his and his daughter's passport numbers. Liu said he declined to hand over the information.
According to the Justice Department, the man who made the call was not an official, but Matthew Ziburis, a former Florida correctional officer and bodyguard.
Alysa Liu's elite skating career was short-lived, but she enjoyed substantial success. She traveled to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, where she finished seventh in the women's individual competition, an event marred by the doping scandal surrounding Russian skater Kamila Valieva.
At Beijing, she was provided with protection by the US government following the spying allegations.
Liu also took bronze in the 2022 World Championships.