12-Year-Old Becomes Youngest to Ever Land a Triple Axel at International Competition

Liu, from Richmond, California joins Tonya Harding and Mirai Nagasu as the only women to ever land a triple axel at an international competition when she pulled the move at the Asian Open in Bangkok, Thailand under the advanced novice women’s division last Thursday.

American figure skater Kimmie Meissner also landed the same move but in a domestic competition in 2005.

Liu is now regarded as the youngest woman in history to ever to pull a triple axel, Mercury News reported.

“It was very emotional for me to watch her making history, to land a clean triple axel in an international competition at age 12,” the athlete’s father, Arthur Liu, told the publication in an email, adding that it took her two months to master the jump.

“Now she is working on the consistency,” her father continued. “She needs to build up her strength and get this jump consistent.”

This was apparently not the first time she landed a triple axel at a competition. She managed to make the same jump at a small event in California in June, NBC Sports reported.

Liu, who trains at the Oakland Ice Center in Oakland, California, won the U.S. junior title at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championship in January.

Unfortunately, she was too young to compete in the 2018 World Junior Figure Skating Championships as the age limit suggests skaters must be at least 13 years old to be eligible.

She did, however, turn 13 on Aug. 8, but she was already too late to compete in the event.

Images via Instagram / alysaxliu