Team USA figure skaters train separately ahead of Milan-Cortina Olympics
The team, including Alysa Liu, trains individually across the country as they prepare for the Milan-Cortina Olympics. The team rarely trains together ahead of the games.
Before seeks gold, her coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, has to find ice.
"We don't really see each other much," Liu said. "We're skating pretty separately. I don't skate with another, like, member I compete with right now. But we see each other at some competitions."
DiGuglielmo explained the situation, saying, "I mean, if there's a luge track, there's only two luge tracks in the whole United States. So you're basically training together or bobsled, right? Here we have hundreds of skating rinks."
Alysa Liu lives in Oakland, California, and trains at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Ice Rink. They rent the rink for private training, but often she practices for the Olympics during group skate. The advantage of training on her home ice is the ability to spend time with her four siblings and friends, providing her with a little more balance.
"We're really decentralized," DiGuglielmo said. "A lot of kids, some people skate in Colorado Springs, some people skate in New Jersey, some. We're here. It would be crazy for Alysa to pick her life up away from her family. It's so important to her."
Top U.S. skaters recently got together for where athletes assigned to a Grand Prix did photo shoots and some team bonding.
"We were together for four days," Liu said. "And shows, sometimes if we get the same show, we'll be together during that time. But other than that, we don't really see each other much."
That will all change in February when America's top spinners and jumpers land together in Italy for the Alysa Liu came out of a two-year retirement and went on to become this year's world champion.
