Amber Glenn

Amber Glenn (born October 28, 1999, Plano, Texas, U.S.) is an American figure skater who won the U.S. national championships in 2024, 2025, and 2026, making her the first woman to claim that title over three consecutive years since Michelle Kwan, who was the reigning national champion from 1998 to 2005. Glenn was a member of the U.S. team at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games and won a gold medal in the team figure-skating event. In a sport mostly dominated by younger athletes, she became, at age 26, the oldest American woman to compete in the singles figure-skating competition at the Olympics in nearly a century. In addition, Glenn—who came out publicly as bisexual and pansexual in 2019 and has been a longtime advocate for the LGBTQ community—was the first openly queer female figure skater to compete for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics.

Early life

Glenn grew up in Plano, a city near Dallas, in northern Texas. Her father, Richard Glenn, works as a police officer, and her mother, Cathlene Glenn, homeschooled her for many years and also worked at times as a fitness instructor and a baby sitter. Amber Glenn began ice skating at age 5 in a rink at a local shopping mall, and by the first grade she was training with a coach. From early on she was serious about the sport, and by age 11 she could land every triple jump except the triple axel. She competed at the U.S. national championships in the junior ladies category for the first time in 2013, coming in fifth place. The following year, when Glenn was 14 years old, she captured the U.S. junior ladies’ championship.

Though she showed enormous promise on the ice during that time, Glenn’s progress was affected by personal challenges. She dealt with ADHD, anxiety, and depression, as well as an eating disorder, and received treatment at an inpatient mental-health facility. Reflecting on that time years later in a 2025 interview with Women’s Health, she recalled that she had been under intense pressure to succeed on the ice and to conform physically to unreasonable body standards for women figure skaters. Glenn, who stands 5 feet 6 inches (1.7 meters), said, “I’m a little bit taller, more muscular, but I’m also more powerful than a lot of other skaters. Aesthetics be damned, I love what I’m capable of.”

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Glenn returned to the ice after a pause of several months and switched to a new training facility. Over the next several years she competed steadily both nationally and internationally, typically finishing among the top 10 at major events, including the U.S. national championships, International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix competitions, and the ISU Challenger Series. But Glenn had yet to break through and fulfill her elite potential.

Coming out and leveling up

A personal turning point came in 2019 when Glenn came out as bisexual and pansexual in an interview with the Dallas Voice. Her announcement gave her a new sense of confidence and won her vocal support from fans in the LGBTQ community. When she competed at the U.S. national championships in 2020, soon after the story was published, audience members greeted her with Pride flags. “People were cheering louder than ever,” she told an NBC podcast in 2026. “I almost started crying before I even skated. It was one of the most emotional performances of my life. I felt so free.”

What Is a Triple Axel?

The axel is generally considered the most difficult jump in figure skating. The skater begins the jump by skating forward and lifting one knee off the ice while using their opposite foot to vault themselves into the air. In a tight position a skater completes 1.5 spins for a single axel (2.5 for a double, 3.5 for a triple, and 4.5 for a quadruple). The skater then lands on the opposite foot, facing in the opposite direction from takeoff. Learn more in Common Figure Skating Jumps Explained.

Glenn soon began performing better and better on figure skating’s biggest stages. In 2021, when she was 21 years old, she won a silver medal at the U.S. national championships. That result set up expectations that she could make the U.S. national team for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. But she was forced to withdraw from the 2022 U.S. national championships, which function as Olympic trials, after testing positive for COVID-19.

Glenn carried on after that setback, moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to be near one of the top figure-skating training facilities in the United States. After she had been attempting a triple axel jump in competitions since early 2021, she landed it cleanly for the first time at Skate America in October 2023. She thus became the sixth American woman, after Tonya Harding, Mirai Nagasu, and others, to successfully land the difficult move in competition. That same year she finished in third place at the U.S. national championships.

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In 2024 Glenn firmly established herself in the top ranks of figure skating. At the U.S. national championships in January, she again landed a clean triple axel in the free skate segment and went on to win the competition for the first time as an adult. In November she captured two ISU Grand Prix titles, in France and China, and followed those victories by winning the Grand Prix Final in December. She was the first American to win the latter competition in 14 years. Glenn continued to perform well in 2025, defending her championship at the U.S. national championships and finishing in first place again at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China.

By this time Glenn had her sights firmly on the goal of making the U.S. roster for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, both for herself and to inspire others. She told Sports Illustrated in October 2025, “It’s my dream to compete on the biggest stage in the world, and to be able to share my message of being an advocate for mental health, for the queer community, and be able to speak about the things that I’m passionate about.…And of course I want to go there because of my sport—but it’s also because I want to inspire a young generation of athletes.”

2026 Winter Olympics

At the U.S. national championships in January 2026, Glenn set a national record in the short program, scoring 83.05 points. She went on to secure her third consecutive victory at the competition, thereby earning a spot at the Winter Olympics. Just days before the Games started, Glenn was asked by reporters to comment on how the policies of the second administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump had affected the LGBTQ community. She said:

It’s been a hard time for the community overall in this administration. It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights.…I hope I can use my platform and my voice throughout these Games to try and encourage people to stay strong in these hard times. I know that a lot of people say, ‘You’re just an athlete, like, stick to your job, shut up about politics,’ but politics affect us all. It is something that I will not just be quiet about, because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. So, of course, there are things that I disagree with, but, as a community, we are strong and we support each other, and brighter days are ahead of us.

Glenn’s comments—along with the words of several other American athletes who spoke out critically—were widely circulated, and she received an avalanche of negative comments, including threats, leading her to take a break from social media.

On the ice Glenn’s first competition was the team figure-skating event, for which she performed in the women’s free-skate portion. Her performance, which opened with a triple axel, was scored 138.62, well below her personal best of 150.50. “I just didn’t feel good,” Glenn said after the event. “And there was a lot of disappointment in how I was feeling. Of course, looking back, I’m proud of how I was able to fight through the program. It’s shown how much I’ve grown mentally. I just physically did not feel my best out there.”

Nevertheless, Glenn’s performance was enough to secure third place in her segment. Combined with strong showings from teammates Ilia Malinin and Alysa Liu, ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and pairs skaters Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam, the U.S. took home the gold medal.

Glenn next competed in the women’s singles event. In the short program segment, she executed a perfect triple axel but lost significant points on a less-difficult triple loop element later in the routine. Her score put her in 13th place, almost certainly out of medal contention, and she wept openly in disappointment. Two days later in the free skate, she regained her composure and had a season-best performance, scoring 147.52 and ultimately finishing in fifth place.

Learn About Other American Olympic Figure Skaters

Ilia Malinin

Michelle Kwan

Tara Lipinski

Scott Hamilton

Peggy Fleming