When Amber Glenn landed a triple axel at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the figure skating world noticed. When they learned the full story of how she got there, a lot of people outside the skating world noticed too.
Glenn — a three-time US national champion from Texas — became one of only a handful of women in Olympic history to land the triple axel in competition. The jump requires 3.5 rotations and has been considered the most difficult jump in women's figure skating for decades. But the technical achievement was almost secondary to the story behind it.
What the Triple Axel Represents
The triple axel is the only jump in figure skating that takes off from a forward outside edge, adding a full half-rotation compared to all other triples. For women's figure skating, it has functioned as a kind of ceiling — something that exists theoretically but that almost no one crosses in actual competition.
In the entire history of women's Olympic figure skating, it had been landed by only a tiny number of skaters before Glenn: Midori Ito, Tonya Harding, Mao Asada, and a handful of others at various points in the sport's modern era. The list is short. The jump is that hard.
For a full technical breakdown of the triple axel — including why it's so much harder than other triple jumps — see our guide to the triple axel.
Amber Glenn's Journey
The outline of Glenn's skating career reads easily enough: three-time US national champion, 2026 Olympian, triple axel. The reality underneath it is considerably more complicated.
Glenn has been public about her experience with an eating disorder — a health crisis that is unfortunately common in elite figure skating, where weight and body image pressures have historically been severe. She has also been open about mental health treatment and the work it required to return to competitive form. There were seasons where her trajectory was unclear, where the gap between her talent and her results was frustrating to watch, where the Olympic dream felt genuinely uncertain.
She narrowed that gap. She kept working. She qualified for the Olympic team.
At Milan-Cortina, in the team event, she stood at the base of the triple axel during her program and went for it. She landed it. The crowd understood that something significant had just happened even before anyone could explain why.
"I told myself, no matter how the program was going to go, I was going to look up and tell myself, 'You're at the Olympics,'" Glenn said after her individual free skate.
The Olympic Competition
Glenn's individual competition placed her just outside the medals in the women's singles event, where Alysa Liu took gold with 226.79 points, Kaori Sakamoto earned silver, and Nakai Ami took bronze.
By points and placement, Glenn's individual result was fourth or lower — outside the podium. But the context made it something different. She landed a triple axel at the Olympics. She skated programs that drew standing ovations. She competed at the highest level in the sport after everything that had stood between her and that moment.
The medals went to Liu, Sakamoto, and Nakai. The stories will include Glenn's.
What This Means for Women's Figure Skating
The triple axel in women's figure skating occupies a specific cultural space in the sport. It is the jump that Tonya Harding made her signature, the jump that Mao Asada built her entire competitive identity around, the jump that commentators lose their composure describing when it's landed cleanly in competition.
Glenn's landing at the 2026 Olympics adds her name to a very short list. It also raises a question that the sport has been circling around for several seasons: as more women attempt — and occasionally land — the triple axel, what does it mean for how the women's competition is structured? Is the jump becoming more viable, or will it remain the outlier it's always been?
The answer is probably both: it will remain extraordinarily difficult, which means only a handful of women will ever realistically attempt it in major competition. But the handful is growing, and the skaters attempting it are more consistent than they used to be.
Glenn is part of that shift.
What's Next for Glenn
Glenn won her third consecutive US national title in early 2026, establishing herself as the clear leader of American women's figure skating heading into the next Olympic cycle. Her goals for the coming seasons involve more consistent triple axel attempts in competition and continued development of her programs' artistic depth.
She has also been increasingly vocal as an advocate for mental health awareness in figure skating — an area where the sport has a complicated history and real room to grow.
For anyone inspired by Glenn's story who wants to start their own skating journey — regardless of where they are in life — every skater starts with the same first step. Find a rink near you and sign up for a Learn to Skate session. The gap between where you start and where you're headed is exactly the kind of thing that can't be predicted in advance.