Top US figure skater Alysa Liu switching coaches

November 22, 2021 GMT
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Alysa Liu of the United States performs during the women's free skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating NHK Trophy competition in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
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Alysa Liu of the United States performs during the women's free skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating NHK Trophy competition in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Two-time U.S. figure skating champion Alysa Liu is making a coaching change less than three months before the Winter Olympics.

The 2019 and 2020 U.S. champ will begin training in Colorado Springs with Christy Krall, Drew Meekins and Viktor Pfeifer. She previously trained in Oakland, California, under Massimo Scali and Jeremy Abbott.

The women’s squad for the February Games in Beijing will be selected in early January at the national championships in Nashville, Tennessee. Liu is a favorite to make the team.

Liu, 16, is the 2020 world junior bronze medalist and finished second at the junior Grand Prix Final in 2019. Earlier this season, Liu won the Nebelhorn Trophy — to secure the United States a third berth in Beijing — and the Lombardo Trophy, but she has not fared as well in the senior Grand Prix series, her first at the senior level.

Liu finished fifth at Skate Canada and fourth at NHK Trophy, where her marks were diminished by under-rotating several jumps.

In 2019, Liu became the youngest senior singles national champion as a 13-year-old. She repeated in 2020 but was too young both years to compete in international seniors events.