Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu will not defend her world title in Prague next month, with first alternate Gabriela Juarez-Rivas confirmed as part of the U.S. team alongside Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito.
Alysa Liu has withdrawn from the 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. Team USA has confirmed that first alternate Gabriela Juarez-Rivas will take her place when competition begins April 6th at the O2 Arena in Prague.
Liu, 20, won gold in both the team event and the individual competition at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games last month, becoming the first American woman to claim Olympic singles gold since Sarah Hughes in 2002. She will not be in Prague to defend the world title she claimed in Boston last spring. The decision is consistent with a pattern the sport knows well. It is common for Olympic champions to skip the following World Championships, and Liu has been in near-constant demand since the Games ended, appearing on talk shows and in interviews just weeks after standing atop the podium in Milan. She also retired briefly after the 2022 Beijing Games before mounting a comeback, demonstrating she has never been afraid to put her wellbeing above the competitive calendar.
Liu’s replacement is first alternate Gabriela Juarez-Rivas, the 17-year-old from San Jose who finished fifth at January’s U.S. Championships and was named directly behind the three-woman Olympic team.
Team USA in Prague
Juarez-Rivas will join Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito to form Team USA’s women’s contingent in Prague.
Glenn arrives off one of the most talked-about performances of the Olympic Games. After a disappointing short program left her 13th overall, the three-time U.S. champion produced a season-best free skate of 147.52, the third-best score on the night, to climb all the way to fifth place with a combined total of 214.91. It was the kind of performance that defines careers. She has since confirmed she will compete at Worlds and has never been to Prague. “I’ve never been to Prague, so I’m so excited for that,” she said after the Games.
Levito, the 2024 World silver medalist, had a difficult individual competition in Milan, finishing 12th after falling on her opening combination in the free skate. She heads to Prague having competed at the World Championships twice before, finishing fourth in Boston last spring. With the experience of two Worlds and an Olympics now behind her, she arrives in Prague motivated and with scores to settle.
Juarez-Rivas, meanwhile, returns to the World Championships for the second time, having placed sixth in Boston in her senior debut last spring. She had been one of the most consistent skaters on the Grand Prix circuit all season, winning the Nebelhorn Trophy and the Rostelecom Cup (followed by bronze at Finlandia Trophy), before claiming silver at the Grand Prix Final, only for a difficult free skate at Nationals to cost her a spot on the original Olympic team. She was named as a first alternate for both the Olympic and World teams. Now, through events that began in Milan, she gets her chance.
The three face a field that includes Olympic silver medalist Kaori Sakamoto of Japan, competing in the final season of a decorated career, and Olympic bronze medalist Nakai Ami, who claimed the podium in Milan and will be among the favorites in Prague.
Context: Liu’s decision
Liu’s withdrawal follows a turbulent few weeks since her Olympic gold. Her Instagram following climbed past 7.4 million after the Games, a staggering rise for a figure skater, and the attention has not always been welcome. Just days ago she revealed on social media that she had been chased to her car by a spectator, a reminder that the fame that comes with Olympic gold carries pressures that extend well beyond the ice.
Liu won the world title in Boston last spring, becoming the first American woman to claim the title since Kimmie Meissner in 2006, before adding Olympic gold in Milan. She leaves behind a vacancy that the sport’s best will now compete to fill.
The women’s short program takes place April 7 at the O2 Arena, with the free skate to follow on April 9. For the three Americans heading to Prague, Worlds represents their best chance yet to settle the scores this season left unfinished.
