When Amber Glenn stepped onto the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena on February 8, 2026, she carried more than two decades of work, heartbreak, and hard-won resilience into that arena. By the time the 2026 Winter Olympics were over, she had an Olympic gold medal, a nomination for the Olympic Fair Play Award, and a story that every person who has ever stood nervously at the edge of a rink — wondering if they're too old, too awkward, or too late — needs to hear.
Who Is Amber Glenn?
Amber Glenn is a 26-year-old American figure skater from Plano, Texas — and as of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, she is a three-time U.S. National Champion, a Grand Prix Final Champion, and an Olympic gold medalist in the team event.
She first stepped onto the ice at age five, inside a rink at the Stonebriar Centre Mall in Frisco, Texas. Something clicked immediately — within a year, she had landed the single axel. By age eleven, she had completed every triple jump except the triple axel, widely considered the most difficult jump in figure skating. It was clear early that Amber Glenn had a rare kind of talent.
But talent, as Glenn would spend years learning, is never the whole story.
A Career Built on Resilience
Glenn's path to the Olympics was not a straight line. Far from it.
As a teenager transitioning from junior to senior skating, she faced criticism about her appearance, her body shape, and her costumes — the kind of judgment that is all too common in a sport that often prioritizes aesthetics over humanity. She internalized that criticism, and by the time she was 16, she was struggling with depression, an eating disorder, and an undiagnosed case of ADHD. In late 2015, she was briefly admitted to an inpatient treatment facility.
She took a break from skating. Her psychiatrist told her to stop the sport indefinitely.
She didn't stop.
In February 2016, she returned to the ice under new coaches, and slowly began rebuilding — not just her technique, but her relationship with herself. Over the next several years, she climbed steadily: eighth at nationals, then seventh, then fifth, then silver in 2021. An Olympic berth for the 2022 Beijing Games seemed within reach — until it wasn't. A fourteenth-place finish in the short program at the Olympic trials ended that dream.
She moved to Colorado Springs to train under coach Damon Allen and started again.
The 2023–24 season was her breakout. She became the sixth American woman ever — and the fourth in international competition — to cleanly land a triple axel. She won her first U.S. National Championship title in 2024, then defended it in 2025, then again in 2026 — becoming the first woman to win three consecutive national titles since Michelle Kwan did it from 2003 to 2005.
At 26, she became the oldest U.S. women's singles skater to qualify for the Olympics since 1928.
The 2026 Milan Olympics: Gold, Heartbreak, and a Free Skate to Remember
At the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan, Glenn competed in two events: the team event and the individual women's competition.
In the team event, she helped anchor Team USA to an Olympic gold medal alongside Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Ellie Kam, and Danny O'Shea. She also became the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to represent the United States in Olympic singles figure skating — a milestone that carries weight far beyond the sport.
The individual competition was a different story — and in many ways, a more remarkable one.
In the short program, Glenn opened with a clean triple axel, one of only two women in the entire competition to attempt the jump. But a slight loss of balance on a triple loop — a much simpler element — cost her everything. She received zero points for the element, and dropped to 13th place. She was visibly devastated, and left the arena after only a brief interview.
She came back two days later for the free skate.
Starting from 13th place, she skated to a medley of "I Will Find You" by Audiomachine and "The Return" by CLANN. She nailed her triple axel again. She stayed on her feet. She let herself feel every moment of it. When the music ended, she told herself: You're at the Olympics. You did it.
Her free skate score of 147.52 — the third-best performance of the night — launched her to the top of the leaderboard, where she held the lead for nearly an hour before the final group of skaters took the ice. She finished fifth overall, just over four points off the podium.
Fifth place from 13th after a disastrous short program. At the biggest competition of her life.
"Every time my name was announced in that rink, there was an eruption of applause and I am so grateful for that," she said afterward. "I'm walking away with a medal so I'm very happy."
Believe and Breathe: A Mental Health Mantra for the Ice and Beyond
One of the most compelling things about Amber Glenn isn't her technical ability — it's the framework she's built around her mental and emotional health, and her willingness to talk openly about it.
Her mantra: Believe and Breathe.
It's more than a motto. It's a system. In practice, Glenn wears a heart-rate monitor, and her coach Damon Allen tracks the readings rinkside. When her numbers spike — when anxiety starts to take over — Allen calls her over for a series of deep breaths. They've built an entire training ecosystem around the reality of who she is as an athlete: someone with ADHD, a history of anxiety, and an emotional range that used to be called a liability.
Glenn reframed it as a superpower.
She also uses neurofeedback as part of her mental health toolkit — a form of brain training she describes as "like going to the gym but for your brain" — to help her manage the nervous system spikes that have historically thrown off her competition performances.
"I want to, of course, accomplish things on the ice, but I also want to live," she said before the Olympics. "You don't have to be just one thing. You can be a whole person and an athlete."
Her "Believe and Breathe" brand — a full merchandise line available through her website — is built around extending that philosophy beyond her own career. She brought 200 custom "Believe and Breathe" pins to Milan to hand out during Olympic pin trading. It's the kind of detail that tells you everything about who she is.
The Moment That Earned an Olympic Fair Play Nomination
After Kaori Sakamoto of Japan skated her free program and came up short of gold, the Japanese champion was visibly in tears — raw, exposed, and overwhelmed on one of the world's biggest stages. Camera operators moved in.
Amber Glenn stepped in front of them and asked them to give Sakamoto space.
The gesture went viral. The International Olympic Committee nominated her for the Olympic Fair Play Award. Glenn, for her part, expressed frustration with the media's approach: "I know it's their job but they will get all up in your business even when you clearly need space."
That moment — protecting a competitor's dignity at her own Olympics — said more about who Amber Glenn is than any score ever could.
What Makes Amber Glenn's Story Meaningful for New Skaters
Here is the thing about Amber Glenn's career that tends to get buried under the technical details: she never fit the mold the sport expected of her.
She was too expressive. Too emotional. She skated to rock music as a ten-year-old and a judge told her to tone it down. She had ADHD in a sport that rewards precision and control. She was openly queer in a world that wasn't always ready for it. She missed the Olympics at 22, an age when many competitive figure skaters are already winding down.
And then she won three consecutive national championships and an Olympic gold medal.
That arc isn't just inspiring — it's instructive. The qualities that people told Glenn to minimize were the same ones that eventually made her magnetic on the ice. Her emotional connection with audiences. Her fighting spirit under pressure. Her refusal to perform a version of herself she didn't believe in.
If you've ever thought you were too old to try skating, or too clumsy to improve, or too far behind to catch up — Amber Glenn became the oldest American Olympic figure skating qualifier in nearly a century. She is proof that the timeline is not fixed.
Want to Start Skating? Nashville Has Ice Year-Round
You don't need a triple axel. You don't need a competition goal. You just need a rink and a willingness to try.
If you're in Nashville, you have excellent options within the city — and you don't need a reservation or special equipment to get started. Nashville's rinks offer beginner-friendly public skating sessions, skate rentals included, with learn-to-skate programs for both kids and adults.
Centennial Sportsplex (222 25th Ave N, Nashville, TN 37203) runs public skate sessions throughout the week with walk-in admission that includes skate rental. It's also home to the Nashville Figure Skating Club — the longest-running figure skating club in Middle Tennessee.
The Ford Ice Centers in Antioch and Bellevue offer additional ice time across the metro area, with structured learn-to-skate programming at both locations.
You can find rink schedules, public session info, and learn-to-skate programs for all three Nashville rinks at Ice Skating Index. And if you're just getting started, our beginner's guide to ice skating covers everything you need for your first session — what to wear, how to fall safely, and how to take your first strides on the ice.
Amber Glenn started on a mall rink in Texas at age five. Everybody starts somewhere.
Amber Glenn's Career Highlights
- 2026 Olympic Team Event Gold Medalist (Milan Cortina)
- 3x U.S. National Champion (2024, 2025, 2026)
- Grand Prix Final Champion (2024)
- First openly LGBTQ+ woman to represent the U.S. in Olympic singles figure skating
- First U.S. woman to land three triple axels at a single Olympic Games
- Oldest U.S. women's singles Olympic qualifier since 1928
- 2026 Olympic Fair Play Award nominee
- Founder, "Believe and Breathe" mental health initiative
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