Texas native Amber Glenn won the biggest US figure skating title in 14 years, beating the Japanese stars


American 14-year drought female figure skating The Grand Prix champs wrapped up Saturday as Amber Glenn defeated elite Japanese opponents to take first place.

Glenn won the first women’s singles final gold medal for the USA since 2010.

She defeated Japan’s Mona Chiba, Hana Yoshida, Kaori Sakamoto, Rino Matsuike and Wakaba Higuchi, who finished second through sixth in that order. Glenn’s win came by just 0.69 points over Chiba.

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At 25, the Texan is the oldest winner of a Grand Prix final since Russia’s Irina Slutskaya won her fourth and final title in December 2004 at age 26. That puts Glenn as a top contender at the March 23-30 World Championships in Boston, less than a year away from the 2026 Olympics.

There were times in Glenn’s career when it seemed like he would achieve this feat much sooner. In 2014, she won the USA Junior Championship. But she gave up skating in 2015 due to depression.

She returned later that year, but had one of the worst performances of her career with a sixth-place finish at the 2015 Autumn Classic International. She has since called the experience a “disaster,” according to The Washington Post.

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After that she left the sport again and has since revealed that during that time doctors told her to leave the sport “indefinitely”. But she returned to training in early 2016. Glenn was never able to match her 2014 junior championship form in senior competitions thereafter.

In December 2019, Glenn announced that she is pansexual, meaning she is romantically attracted to people of any gender.

“The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me,” she told the Dallas Voice. “Being seen as ‘just a phase’ or ‘undecided’ is a common thing for bi/pansexual women. I don’t want to shove my sexuality in people’s faces, but I also don’t want to hide who I am.”

Glenn cited North Texas-based skating team Ashley Kane-Gribble and her queer partner Timothy LeDuc as “role models” in her acceptance of her sexuality, according to the Dallas Voice.

In an interview with Team USA 2021, Glenn said her experience growing up as a figure skater exposed her to gay stereotypes. She later said she “fell in love” with figure skaters.

“Growing up in figure skating, there was always a stereotype that men were gay,” Glenn said. “At the age of 16, when my friends and training mates started looking at the opposite sex, I was in love with both men and women.

Glenn is only known to be romantically involved with male figure skater Nathan Chan. The two dated in 2016, expressing their affection through Instagram posts.

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Gold medalist Amber Glenn

Gold medalist Amber Glenn of the United States poses with her medal during the medal ceremony at the ISU Grand Prix Final of Figure Skating — Grenoble at Patinoire Polesud on December 7, 2024 in Grenoble, France. (Daniela Porcelli/International Skating Union/International Skating Union)

“My love for you has gradually formed. Your personality, your voice, your hair, your eyes, your humor, everything. You’re the only person I have to talk to when I’m having a bad day, the only person I can count on not wanting me judge, you are my best friend and the most amazing boyfriend I could ask for,” she wrote to Chen in an Instagram post.

Their relationship is believed to have ended in 2017, and she came out as pansexual two years after that. Glenn said she feared being openly pansexual would “affect her results” in an interview with NBC Sports in January.

It didn’t affect her results enough to prevent her from winning a historic medal on Saturday.

Glenn is now in position to make his first team at the Winter Olympics.

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