Amber Glenn Will Take Her Triple Axel To The Olympics

On Sunday, U.S. Figure Skating announced its Olympic roster, which adhered, as is natural, to the top three performers at its national championships. The men's event saw the most upheaval from the anticipated roster, but not in a way that was particularly interesting for Olympic prospects: Ilia Malinin is still the prohibitive favorite to win everything, and no other American man is expected to contend seriously for a podium finish. By contrast, the expected Olympic roster in the women's event nailed their programs: 18-year-old Isabeau Levito, who enjoys an ice princess image on ice; and two serious contenders for the Olympic podium in 20-year-old Alysa Liu and and 26-year-old Amber Glenn.

Unlike Liu, known to the greater populace ever since she became the U.S. women's national champion and the country's women's figure skating savior at age 13, Glenn was not an immediate prodigy. (Whether being a prodigy is to anyone's benefit is highly debatable. Liu retired from figure skating after the 2022 Olympics, when she was only 16, though her story has had a happy continuation: She made a practically unheard of return to the highest level in 2024, and found out how to skate on her own terms. As Levito said of Liu in a press conference last week, "She keeps the hoes on their toes.") What Glenn does have over Liu, and much of the women's singles field, is the ability to nail a triple Axel.