This seems like a PR move on the part of the father. Alysa’s skating skills and speed improved with the last coaches, but in international competitions, she has been dinged for underrotations and her jump GOE is not huge. If you stay with those same coaches, how do you improve the scores/change the narrative about her jumps without working over time to improve them? For this Olympic cycle, they are almost out of time. If you want better calls in a couple of months at the Olympics — and a precedent for those better calls starting at US nationals — you change the coach, change the narrative, talk about wanting Alysa to train more intensely. Notice that he picked a Colorado coach that people don’t object to as much even though people are upset about the switch. He might be calculating. The narrative can become “with the help of Christy Krall, who helped Patrick Chan, Liu has improved her jumps through more intensive training at the Olympic training center, at altitude!” I’m not saying that her jumps won’t improve anyway. I’m saying changing the narrative about her jumps may be just as important as getting actual improvement in the jumps. If we have learned anything from the Eteri skaters, surely it’s that the narrative about how good their jumps are is better than the jumps themselves. It’s partly a PR game, and it’s easier to change the PR about her jumps if she changes coaches. If changing the narrative in time for the Olympics works, could she get on the podium? Maybe that’s where her dad is deluded. But, frankly, recent events in figure skating have proved that PR is as important as skills. Alysa has skills and good programs already. Now she just needs better PR to influence higher jump scores.
but when I was transferred from Chicago to Denver it took me several months to acclimatize.
olympics.com
