Alissa Czisny
Czisny at the2010 Skate Canada International
Born	(1987-06-25)June 25, 1987 (age 37) Sylvania, Ohio
Hometown	Bowling Green, Ohio
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Figure skating career
Country	United States
Coach	Yuka Sato,Jason Dungjen, Julianne Berlin, Linda Leaver, Shelly Bressler
Skating club	Detroit Skating Club
Began skating	1989 (started at 18 months)
Retired	June 19, 2014
Medal record Figure skating:Ladies' singles Representing United States Grand Prix Final 2010–11 Beijing Ladies' singles

Alissa Czisny (born June 25, 1987) is an American former competitivefigure skater. She is the 2010Grand Prix Final champion, a two-timeSkate Canada champion (2005, 2010), the 2011Skate America champion, and a two-timeU.S. national champion (2009, 2011). She is also the 2019 and the 2021 U.S. Professional Open Grand Champion.^[1][2]

Alissa Czisny was born together with a fraternal twin sister, Amber, on June 25, 1987, inSylvania, Ohio.^[3][4] She is asumma cum laude graduate ofBowling Green State University where she was on a full academic scholarship while also competing at the international level^[5][6] and majored in international studies.^[7] She took some of her classes online due to her skating, training, and traveling schedule.^[4] Czisny is a vegetarian.^[8] She took ballet lessons from a young age to improve her flexibility and strength.^[4]

In August 2022, Czisny married Canadian figure skaterKurt Browning.^[9]

Czisny began skating at age 1½ when she and her sister, Amber, accompanied their mother to the ice skating rink because they did not want to stay at home with the babysitter. Czisny started skating in Bowling Green, Ohio, where Shelly Bressler was Czisny's first skating coach.^[10] Julianne Berlin became her coach in 1998.^[5] Czisny's first national medal came in 2001 where she finished 2nd in the junior event^[11]

Czisny finished 4th in herGrand Prix debut at2004 Skate America, to which she was invited afterMichelle Kwan withdrew.^[5]

Czisny first gained international attention when she won the gold medal at the2005 Skate Canada International^[12] and silver at the2005 Skate America where she received a standing ovation for her free program. She qualified for the2005–06 Grand Prix Final and placed sixth. Czisny went on to the2006 U.S. Championships inSt. Louis, where she finished seventh overall. She was one of four figure skaters featured on the 2006TLC series,Ice Diaries.

Czisny began the season at the2006 Skate Canada International where she placed fourth. She also competed at the2006 Cup of Russia in November. At the2007 U.S. Championships she was in fifth after the short program, but went on to win the free skate to win the bronze medal and the final U.S. spot to the2007 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. At the World Championships, she finished 15th.

Czisny finished third at the2008 Skate Canada International in the2008–09 Grand Prix series behindJoannie Rochette andFumie Suguri.^[13] At the2009 U.S. Championships, she won the short program by over five points.^[14] She finished third in the long program but won the gold medal due to her lead from the short.^[15] Czisny won her first national title, ahead ofRachael Flatt andCaroline Zhang.^[16] She earned her second trip to theFour Continents and theWorld Championships, in which she finished ninth and eleventh, respectively.

In the2009–10 Grand Prix season, Czisny placed fourth at the2009 Rostelecom Cup and won the silver medal at the2009 Skate Canada International. Her short program score of 63.52 was the fourth highest of this ISU Grand Prix season, only surpassed byYuna Kim (two scores) andJoannie Rochette. Czisny placed tenth at the2010 U.S. Championships; as a result, she did not make the Olympic team and financial support to help cover her mid-five-figure training expenses was cut.^[17] She also found out her sister had cancer (in remission as of 2011).^[17] Czisny considered retiring but her mentorsBrian Boitano and Linda Leaver encouraged her to continue.^[18][19]

In February 2010, she left coach Julianne Berlin,^[6] who had coached her for twelve years.^[20] In May, she said she would remain at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with new coachesYuka Sato andJason Dungjen.^[21] She reworked her jump technique with the help of her new coaches,^[22][23] who also helped her with her mental approach.^[17] She noted, "I finally realized that my results in skating didn't define who I am as a person."^[24]

Czisny began the 2010–11 season by winning the2010 Skate Canada International,^[25] her first gold medal on the Grand Prix series since winning 2005 Skate Canada. She also won Midwestern Sectionals, qualifying her to compete at US Nationals in 2011. She won bronze at her second Grand Prix event,2010 Trophée Eric Bompard, which combined with her Skate Canada result qualified her for the Grand Prix Final.

At the2010–11 Grand Prix Final, Czisny won the short program with 63.76 points and placed third in the long program with a new personal best of 116.99 points. She won her first Grand Prix Final title with a new personal best combined total of 180.75 points. At the2011 U.S. Championships, Czisny placed second in the short program with 62.50,^[26] and then placed first in the free skate with 128.74, giving her a combined total of 191.24 to win the gold.^[27] She thus won her second national gold medal,^[28] finishing 7.86 points ahead of the defending championRachael Flatt.^[18] It was the first time sinceMichelle Kwan's ninth win in 2005 that a ladies' single skater won more than one U.S. national title.^[27] She placed fifth at the2011 World Championships, her best ever result at the event. During the off-season, she skated in a number of shows.^[29] In 2011, she also made a brief appearance in a Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler and Detroit and starred in Chrysler'sPerseverance video.^[30]

In the2011–12 season, Czisny was assigned to2011 Skate America and2011 Trophée Eric Bompard as herGrand Prix events. She won the gold medal at Skate America and bronze at Trophee Bompard. She was first in the free program at Bompard with 121.90 points, setting a new personal best international free skate score. Czisny qualified for theGrand Prix Final. She sustained a calf injury during a practice session on December 8, explaining "it was the way I picked on aflip jump."^[31] After team doctors determined that she would not make the injury worse, Czisny went on to compete and finished 5th at the event.^[31] She won the silver medal at the2012 U.S. Championships. After the2012 Challenge Cup, where she took bronze, she decided not to include the double axel-triple toe combination in her program at Worlds.^[32] Falling twice in the short program and five times in the free skate, she placed 22nd overall at the2012 World Championships.

Czisny was invited to the World Team Trophy but her coach Jason Dungjen declined and Gracie Gold was selected instead.^{[citation needed]} In May 2012, an MRI revealed that Czisny had a torn labrum in her left hip.^[33] Czisny said she would not have competed at Worlds if she had known she was injured.^[33][34] After undergoing surgery on June 6, 2012, in Nashville,^[35] she began physical therapy the next day and after a month no longer needed crutches.^[36]

In the2012–13 season, Czisny received an assignment to theNHK Trophy but withdrew in order to continue her recovery from surgery.^[37][38] She hoped to compete at the2013 U.S. Championships.^[38] On January 12, 2013, at the 2013 Fox Cities Invitational inAppleton, Wisconsin, Czisny dislocated her left hip when she fell on a triple flip.^[39][40] She was taken to hospital where her hip was moved back into alignment.^[40] Her withdrawal from the U.S. Championships was confirmed when she had to undergo another hip surgery on her left hip.^[39]

In April 2013, Czisny resumed her regular training schedule at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In preparation for the 2013–14 season she skated two sessions per day, gradually increasing the difficulty of her jumps and spins and aiming to add a triple-triple jump combination to her long program.^{[citation needed]} She worked regularly with an off-ice trainer and underwent physical therapy daily. With the goal of earning a spot on the 2014 U.S. Olympic team, Czisny made her comeback at the 2014 Eastern Great Lakes Regional Championships and won the gold medal with a total score of 145.12 after placing first in both segments.^[41] This qualified her for the Midwestern Sectionals in November but she withdrew and ended her season because she did not feel fully recovered.^[42][43]

On June 19, 2014, Czisny decided to retire from competition, due to having had two consecutive surgeries on her left hip, saying she would continue to skate in shows and work as a coach.^[44] In June 2016, she underwent hip surgery for a third time, this time due to a torn labrum in her right hip.^[45]

Unlike most skaters, Czisny spins and jumps clockwise. She is known for her excellent spins.^[7] She said, "When I was younger, my sister and I always practiced our spins together. We would spin for hours, seeing who could hold their spin longer and/or who could spin faster. We also tried to come up with as many variations as possible."^[4]

GP:Grand Prix; JGP:Junior Grand Prix

Media related toAlissa Czisny at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Le cygne de Detroit - a poem in French by Vladislav Luchianov dedicated to Alissa Czisny^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• Alissa Czisny at theInternational Skating Union

• American female single skaters
• Figure skating reality television participants
• Bowling Green State University alumni
• People from Sylvania, Ohio
• American twins
• 1987 births
• Living people
• Sportspeople from Ohio
• People from Bowling Green, Ohio
• Sportspeople from Wood County, Ohio
• 21st-century American women

• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox figure skater with unknown parameters
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2012
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from July 2017
• Articles with permanently dead external links