Alysa Liu, 14, wins second consecutive title at U.S. Figure Skating Championships

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A year ago, Alysa Liu became the youngest U.S. women’s figure skating champion in history at the age of 13. At 4-7, she was so short she needed a helping hand from the two women she defeated to reach the top spot on the medal podium.

Friday night, Liu became the youngest two-time U.S. women’s skating champion at the age of 14. Now 4-10, she is still so short that she again needed another hand from the same two women she defeated to reach the top spot on the medal podium.

"We can help you up again," runner-up Mariah Bell kindly offered as Liu approached the podium.

Bell is nine years older than Liu. Third-place finisher Bradie Tennell, the 2018 national champion, is seven years older. They have this down by now. With big smiles and a delighted laugh from those in the audience who remained in the arena to watch the medal ceremony, each woman extended a hand and pulled Liu up to her rightful place — the very top of U.S. women’s skating.

"We recreated that moment from last year," Liu said with a laugh.

If Liu stays healthy and the skating gods oblige, it’s likely they’ll recreate it next year, and even the next, which will be when it really matters, the 2022 Winter Olympic year.

If the United States is to finally win another Olympic medal in women’s figure skating after being shut out in 2010, 2014 and 2018, Liu is by far the nation’s best bet to do it. She became the first woman to attempt a quadruple jump in the history of U.S. nationals Friday with her quad lutz 40 seconds into her four-minute long program, and even though it was under-rotated, it was a breathtaking achievement — and an important signal that she can play ball with the seemingly endless stream of tiny jumpers Russia keeps producing.

In the days of Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill, beautiful skating won the day. Not anymore. It’s great if a teenage skater can attain an air of maturity on the ice — and Liu is in the process of doing just that with choreographer Lori Nichol, who worked wonders with Michelle Kwan a generation ago — but she must be able to land jumps in competition that were unthinkable for women’s skating even a few years ago.

In the first 65 seconds of her long program, Liu landed two triple axels — the toughest triple jump there is, the one done almost exclusively by men for several generations — and made that game attempt at the quad. Then she reeled off six more triple jumps. That is how to compete with your fellow tiny teenagers in the increasingly high-stakes world of international jumping contests we call figure skating.

Interestingly, Liu took the ice for her majestic long program as the crowd was still buzzing over the strongest performance of Bell’s career. In any other year, Bell would have won her first national title with a seven-triple jump program that brought spectators to their feet well before her music finished. She was in tears and overjoyed, but not as giddy as her choreographer, part-time coach and friend, 2018 Olympian Adam Rippon, who paced and leaped through every glorious moment of Bell’s performance, then swallowed her in a mighty bear-hug, raising her arm as if she had just won a prize fight.

Entering to a raucous ovation for someone else might have spooked some young skaters. Not Liu.

"I didn’t get nervous or excited," she said. "I was just kind of like, 'OK, she did well and so I also have to do well.' "

When it was over and the crowd was again on its feet and she had become the first woman to repeat as U.S. champion since Ashley Wagner in 2013, the 14-year-old offered her unique perspective on the evening's developments.

"I still think last year was more special because it was my first," she said. "This year, I’m thinking, the new decade, like, wow, what a good start."

Meanwhile, Gracie Gold, 24, the two-time national champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist returning after three years away from this championship, earned a sustained and emotional standing ovation, finished 12th in a field of 18 skaters and vowed to keep at it for at least another year.

Follow columnist Christine Brennan on Twitter @cbrennansports.