LIU, Anthony

BORN LIU YUEMING on July 4th 1974 in Qiqihar China, he began skating at 7 in 1981, rising to one-time national champion and international representative with a best result of 6th at the 1993 Junior Worlds. Liu placed 21st at the senior Worlds later that year and won the 1993 Winter Universiade. In 1994, he emigrated to Brisbane Australia with his parents, where he changed his first name to Anthony. His former Chinese National Team coach, Chang Yuan Wang, moved to Australia in 1996. Lui became a citizen that August, and won the first of seven straight Australian National Championships between 1996 and 2002.

He became the first Australian skater to land a quadruple jump (quadruple toe loop) at the 1998 Australian Nationals. At the Four Continents in Halifax in 1999, he landed a quadruple-triple toe loop combination on his way to a career-best result at the Four Continents competition where he placed 5th, then 10th at the 1999 World Championships. At the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in 1998 he placed 25th.

Although the ISU awarded the 2000 Worlds to Liu's hometown of Brisbane in 1997, the first time it would be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the organisation reassigned the event to the Cote de'Azur, after the deadline permitted in its own regulations. Liu was understandably disappointed in the controversial decision which Australia protested. But it made no difference. The change was swift, and it turned out Liu did not get the opportunity to compete in his adopted country.

In Nice, Liu landed a quadruple toeloop-double toeloop combination to open his freestyle program but then struggled for much of the four minutes that remained. He finished seventh in the first of the two men's groups, well behind group winner Elvis Stojko of Canada and runner-up Yevgeni Plushenko of Russia, the reigning European champion.

In 2002, Liu returned to the Winter Games in Salt Lake City where he achieved his best Olympic result of 10th overall. It was Australia's equal best result in figure skating with Adrian Swan at Oslo in 1952. Liu's 7th result at the Worlds that year was his best in that competition. Coached by Evelyn Kramer at Salt Lake City, who trained under Gustave Lussi, Liu's other coaches included Colin Jackson and Marina Kudriavtseva.

Liu moved to America in 2000, bought the beloved Desert Ice Castle rink on Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains of California in 2003, and with family opened the Desert Ice Castle at Cathedral City in California in 2011. He closed the Arrowhead rink in 2013 and reportedly partnered the opening of the Ice Castle International in Shenzen, south-eastern China. A renowned jump coach after his competition career, his students include Riona Kato and Olympian Tatsuki Machida.

2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, Men's Free Skate.