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Ada Li

Rising Chinese figure skater Alice Liu Yuxuan is targeting next year’s World Junior Championships and the 2028 Winter Youth Olympics as she prepares to step into junior-level competition for the first time.
The 13-year-old has already made history as the first Chinese women’s singles skater to land a quadruple jump in competition last year, and has trained with Kamila Valieva’s notorious Russian coach Eteri Tutberidze.
The quad jump, which is one of the most difficult elements of figure skating, requires skaters to spin four full times in the air – roughly 1,440 degrees in one jump.
Liu began skating at six after her family brought her to a rink by chance, and she was immediately drawn to the elegance of the sport.
“She thought the children skating on the ice looked beautiful, especially the girls in their competition dresses – like fairies or princesses,” Liu’s mother said. “She watched for a long time and then asked if she could learn too.”


A sporty beginning
Born in Tianjin and now training with support from Guangzhou, Liu tried several sports, including tennis and swimming, before choosing figure skating.
“She was quick to pick up the basics of different sports,” her mother said. “She seemed especially suited to events that required strength from the hips and legs, so she had many options when she was younger.”
Liu’s talent developed quickly. In a South China Morning Post video in 2021, she was still trying to land double jumps, but already displayed a strong competitive mindset and she trained two hours a day while balancing schoolwork.
After representing Guangzhou in 2023, she made rapid progress in a city with limited ice resources, successfully landing five different types of triple jumps within a year.
To give her access to better coaching and training conditions, Liu and her family made daily round trips of more than 200 kilometres between Beijing and Tianjin while she continued her studies.
At the 2024 National Winter Games, Liu, then 11, was the youngest skater in the competition. Still, she stepped up to the senior level and helped Guangdong to silver in the team event.
Her international debut came at the 2024 Asian Open Championships in Hong Kong, where she won bronze in the advanced-novice category for China.
The next step
Liu also began long-term training in Moscow under Eteri Tutberidze, the Russian coach known for producing several Olympic and world champions, in late 2024.
“I learned more about how to combine technical difficulty with emotion and present a programme more completely,” Liu said.
Liu made history soon after at the last at the 2025 Chinese Figure Skating Club Championships last July when she completed a quad Salchow in competition for the first time. Although she admitted to feeling a little nervous, she said the experience was more exciting than daunting.
“I was both nervous and excited,” Liu said. “The overall performance was not perfect and there is still a lot of room to improve.”
She then claimed the gold at the 2025 Asian Open advanced-novice girls’ event, her first international title, but her progress was then interrupted by a fracture in her left tibia that kept her off jump training for three months.
Even so, she fought her way back and, with less than a month of training, finished fifth in the advanced-novice division at the National Champion Competition in March.

Moving up a level
Now moving into junior competition, Liu said she was excited to test herself against stronger rivals.
“I have both nerves and anticipation, but mostly anticipation,” she said. “I hope to show my best in my first junior season.”
Her focus this season is on qualifying for the World Junior Championships next March, while also exploring new quadruple jumps.
From July, Liu will compete for places in the ISU Junior Grand Prix, a seven-stop series for junior skaters, along with domestic events that will serve as selection trials.
She will face strong competition from fellow Chinese skaters, including Wang Yihan, the first Chinese women’s singles skater to win gold on the Junior Grand Prix, and National Winter Games champion Jin Shuxian.
For the new season, Liu has prepared two contrasting programmes. Her short programme is a jazz-style routine to “Greased Lightnin’”, while her free skate continues the more typical style developed under her Russian coaching team, set to “Beethoven’s Five Secrets”, which Liu said allowed her to “show all her emotion during the programme”.
Although age restrictions mean she will miss the 2030 Winter Olympics, Liu is already looking further ahead to the 2028 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2034 Winter Games.
“I need to keep my current skills stable, take care of my body and keep improving if I want to reach those stages I’m eager for,” Liu said.


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Alice Liu, 13, is targeting world junior championships next year en route to securing a place at the Winter Olympics


Alice Liu, 13, is targeting world junior championships next year en route to securing a place at the Winter Olympics.


China’s newest skating star landed quad jump at just 12, trains with notorious Russian coach

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Alice Liu, 13, is targeting world junior championships next year en route to securing a place at the Winter Olympics

Alice Liu, 13, is targeting world junior championships next year en route to securing a place at the Winter Olympics