UCLA Figure Skating: A Legacy of Excellence on Ice

The UCLA Figure Skating Team stands as a testament to the dedication and passion of its members, blending academic rigor with athletic achievement. From its humble beginnings to its current national ranking, the club has fostered a community where skaters of all levels can thrive. This article explores the history, achievements, and culture of the UCLA Figure Skating Team, highlighting its commitment to excellence and the values that define its members.

The Genesis of a Team

In 2011, a chance encounter sparked the idea for the UCLA Figure Skating Team. A group of UCLA students, connected by random meetings at the Culver City Ice Arena and overheard conversations about figure skating, came together to form the club. This organic beginning laid the foundation for a team that would quickly rise to prominence in the intercollegiate figure skating scene.

Ascending to National Recognition

The Bruins have achieved great successes in its brief history, rising to become nationally ranked two years in a row (6th and 5th in 2013 and 2014, respectively) in the annual Intercollegiate Team National Figure Skating Championships. As a nationally ranked and formally recognized US Figure Skating Collegiate Team, we have competitive skaters in all levels of competition from freestyle to solo dance events in the Pacific Coast Section. We compete in various western collegiate qualifying competitions every season in the hopes of qualifying for Nationals.

The team's dedication and hard work paid off as they consistently climbed the ranks, earning national recognition and establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

A Home Away From Home: Training at Toyota Sports Center

Throughout the school year the team trains at the Toyota Sports Center, which is a short 20-minute drive from campus. This facility provides the team with the ice time and resources necessary to hone their skills and prepare for competitions.

A Diverse and Inclusive Community

UCLA Figure Skating is open to all levels of skaters, in ice dance and freestyle. We have a variety of students who skate and compete in levels ranging from preliminary through senior in both freestyle and ice dance. As a team, we offer the opportunity to continue the sport you love and at the level and intensity you desire. We also have a recreational team which has no minimum requirement- even people with no skating experience can join. Throughout the quarter we will organise skate nights, recreational practices and workshops to help beginner skaters develop their skills.

This inclusivity fosters a supportive environment where skaters can learn from each other and grow both on and off the ice.

Competition and Qualifying for Nationals

We compete within the Pacific Coast Section, and usually travel to three qualifying competitions throughout the competition season in pursuit of qualifying for Nationals. The team's competitive skaters participate in various western collegiate qualifying competitions every season in the hopes of qualifying for Nationals.

Academic Dedication and Athletic Excellence

We encourage academic dedication in all our members in addition to nurturing athletic excellence. For a lot of us, we balance rigorous academics as well as figure skating.

"Best in the West": A Moment of Pride

We are extremely proud that we finished "best in the West," topping the other schools in the Western division at the 2014 Intercollegiate Nationals. This achievement reflects the team's commitment to excellence and their ability to perform under pressure.

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True Bruin Values

The UCLA Figure Skating Team upholds all five True Bruin values: Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Service. These values guide the team's conduct both on and off the ice, fostering a culture of sportsmanship and ethical behavior.

Team Bonding and Support

With a competitive team of nearly 20 skaters, unity and team bonding are crucial both on and off the ice - our skaters provide support for one another throughout everyday campus life. This camaraderie creates a positive and encouraging atmosphere where skaters can thrive and reach their full potential.

2023 National Intercollegiate Final

UCLA club figure skating came in seventh out of 16 teams at the 2023 National Intercollegiate Final in Anaheim from April 13-15 after qualifying for the event earlier in the season. “It was a really, really special moment because it’s never happened before and it’s very, very competitive,” said co-president and senior Andreanne Sannajust. “The best part of collegiate skating - it’s just everyone is cheering and screaming in the boards for everybody.

Growth and Success

Despite a full roster this year, the Bruins haven’t always had that opportunity. Originally sporting 12 athletes through the 2021-2022 season, UCLA’s roster nearly doubled in size with its 2022-2023 class, markedly improving its level of skating. Alongside the high nationals finish, UCLA won its first competition in years in Denver earlier this season. “We always do well, but winning a competition was just completely unexpected. It was such an amazing memory,” Davydov said.

Balancing Academics and Athletics

Competing in the largest group of all events - the Excel Juvenile Women Free Skate with 24 competitors - Davydov said she was trying to have the best experience possible at her final collegiate figure skating nationals. “I was training a lot leading up to it, putting in a ton of hours, … making sure that when the time comes, even through all the nerves, I would still be able to perform the way I wanted to,” Davydov said.

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High Team Maneuvers

Part of the High Team Maneuvers squad that took home first, Rebecca Li made program history twice, as the club’s competition chair spent the weekend ensuring the Bruins’ first-ever home nationals went smoothly. “It was just a really exhausting week, so I was definitely tired and nervous about having to compete on top of everything else,” Li said. “I’d been handling it over the weekend, but the entire skating team is always really, really supportive. The High Team Maneuvers squad poses with its award. The Bruins posted their best finish in program history by taking home first over the weekend. “Team Maneuvers is always a really fun event,” Li said. “The camaraderie and team spirit that all the teams displayed during it is always really exciting to see.

Honoring Seniors

UCLA concluded the weekend with a ceremony to honor its seniors. “It was very emotional, just because I’ve been skating for 16 years, and for this to be my last competition to attend in intercollegiate skating was definitely a lot to take in,” Sannajust said.

Alysa Liu: A Bruin and Olympic Hopeful

Early Life and Career

Alysa Liu (born August 8, 2005) is an American figure skater. Liu began skating at age five when her father, a fan of Michelle Kwan, brought her to the Oakland Ice Center in Oakland, California. An accomplished jumper, Liu was the first woman to complete a quadruple jump and a triple Axel in the same program, and the first to land a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination in the short program. She was the first American woman to land a quadruple jump and the first American junior woman to complete a triple Axel in international competition. Liu began skating at the age of 5, and by the age of 7, she was already competing at national levels.

2018-2019 Season

In August 2018, Liu competed as a novice at the 2018 Asian Open Trophy in Bangkok, Thailand. Liu's first competition for the 2019-2020 season was at the inaugural Aurora Games, an international all-female competition held in August 2019. Liu made her international competition debut at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid in August 2019. Skating to "Don't Rain on My Parade" by Barbra Streisand in her short program, she scored 69.30 points, breaking her own personal best short program record by almost 20 points. During her long program, Liu became the first American female skater to complete a quadruple Lutz in a competition. She also became the first female skater to complete a quadruple jump and a triple Axel in the same program in a competition. Skating to pianist Jennifer Thomas' version of "New World Symphony," which was choreographed by Lori Nichol, Liu started her long program with a triple Axel-double toe loop combination, followed by her quadruple Lutz, for which she earned 13.80 points. She fell on her second triple Axel but successfully executed her following six triple jumps. She also earned level-4 scores for her three spins and top marks for her step sequence, earning a 59.66 program component score. She won the event by 21.52 points over the silver medalist, South Korean Park Yeon-jeong. Liu's second slot in the Junior Grand Prix was in Poland.

2019-2020 Season

She came in fourth after the short program but came from behind to win the event.[24] In her short program, she completed, at the start of her program, a triple Axel-triple toe loop, the first in Junior Grand Prix history.[25] She doubled a planned triple loop, trailing by a little over four points going into the free skate.[24] In her free skate, Liu "just about held onto" her first jump, a triple Axel, but improved as she went along, completing a combination that included a double toe loop.[25] She then completed a quadruple Lutz, a "much better" triple Axel, a triple loop, and "two excellent combinations-triple Lutz-triple toe loop and triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow".[25] She ended her program with a triple flip and three level-4 spins.[26] She earned a season's best score of 138.99 in the free skate and 203.10 overall. Liu won the silver medal at the 2019-20 Junior Grand Prix Final behind Russia's Kamila Valieva and ahead of Daria Usacheva, also of Russia.[28] A little over two points separated the first and fourth-place skaters in the short program. Liu was age-ineligible to compete in international senior-level competitions but was named to the 2020 World Junior Championships team alongside Starr Andrews and Lindsay Thorngren.[30][31] She came into her first World Junior Championships ranked third in the world among juniors; ultimately, she placed third, behind Valieva and Usacheva.[32][33] She came in fourth after her short program; according to ESPN, she did not "skate nearly as well at the past two national championships",[34] and lost points for an under-rotation and negative grade of execution, but she successfully completed a triple Axel-triple toe loop combination jump, earning 67.52 points.[34][35] In her solid long program,[32] Liu earned the second-highest technical score, with 137.31 points, came in third place in the long program and earned a cumulative score of 204.83 points.

Coaching Changes

After the season, Liu's father switched from coach Laura Lipetsky to Phillip DiGuglielmo and Massimo Scali, the latter of whom she had started working with in 2019.[37] Liu announced this change on June 22, 2020. Liu had limited international competition opportunities after the 2020-21 ISU Junior Grand Prix was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was age-ineligible for senior Grand Prix competitions. Figure Skating, as part of Team Johnny.[42]

2022 Winter Olympics

In the women's event at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Liu placed eighth in the short program after receiving an edge call on her flip and slightly underrotating the second part of her jump combination. She did not attempt a triple Axel in the segment. Notwithstanding those errors, she said she was happy as "all my training paid off because I'm here competing. And the goal of my whole life and my skating career was to compete at the Olympics."[75] She moved up to seventh place in the free skate despite underrotating her triple Axel attempt. She said she was "still in shock at how well I did. I worked a lot on this, and I'm glad I did two clean programs. I'm making a lot of memories here, and they're all really good ones."[76] Liu was subsequently invited to skate at the exhibition gala but had not prepared an exhibition program as she had not anticipated this.

Retirement and Return

On April 9, 2022, Liu announced on Instagram that she was retiring from figure skating, stating that she felt satisfied with her career, had completed her goals, and was "moving on with [her] life".[83] Later going into more detail about her decision, she explained, "I was so into skating that I really didn't do much else. Skating takes up your whole life, almost. I don't know if other people kind of feel the same when they look back at certain parts of their life, but for me, it's definitely a blur, because it kind of meshes together, you know - going to the rink, going home, competing. There were many, many times when I didn't enjoy it." Former coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, added, "She felt she had kept up her side of the bargain with her father and the skating community in general, which was always to go to the Olympics and be the skater everyone wanted her to be. Figure Skating confirmed Liu's comeback in a press release.[85] She later explained her decision to return to competitive figure skating: "At the very start of this year, I went skiing for the first time. And I hadn't felt that adrenaline rush, I guess, since I'd quit skating. It feels so similar to skiing. And so after I skied, I was like, 'Wait, let me get on the ice and see what it feels like.' At this point, I still wasn't planning to return. I just wanted to skate again because I hadn't stepped on the ice since I last got off for my last show. I just wanted to get back on and see how skates felt, the whole thing. That first session, I tried the double Axel, and I could do it.

Training Base

Because she was a student at UCLA, Liu moved her training base to Lakewood Ice in Lakewood, California.

2024-2025 Season

In October 2024, Liu competed at the 2024 CS Budapest Trophy, her first competition since March 2022. In the short program, she under-rotated the second half of her triple-triple combination but otherwise skated cleanly, scoring 68.83 points and ranking in first place. Going on to compete on the 2024-25 Grand Prix series, Liu placed second in the short program at 2024 Skate Canada International but seventh in the free skate because three of her jumps were scored as underrotated. She placed sixth overall.[90][91][92] Liu later said that she was happy to be competing again: "I'd say my last two years skating before I was kind of, you know, a little out of it. I wasn't totally in it. So this time, it's a little bit differe…

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