On Saturday, Amber Glenn defeated Japan's elite competitors to win, ending a 14-year drought as the U.S. women's figure skating Grand Prix champion.
Glenn won her first gold medal in the U.S. women's singles final since 2010.
Japan's Momone Chiba, Hana Yoshida, Kaori Sakamoto, Rino Matsuike, and Shinba Higuchi finished second to sixth in that order. Glenn won against Chiba by just 0.69 points.
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The 25-year-old Texan becomes the oldest Grand Prix Final winner since Russia's Irina Slutskaya won her fourth and final title at age 26 in December 2004. This makes Glenn the favorite to compete in the World Championships, which will be held in Boston from March 23-30. One year after the 2026 Olympics.
There was a time in Glenn's career when it seemed like she would achieve such a feat much sooner. In 2014, he won the U.S. Junior Championship. However, she stepped away from skating in 2015 citing issues with depression.
She returned later that year, but had the worst finish of her career, finishing sixth at the 2015 Autumn Classic International. She has since called the experience a “disaster,” according to the Washington Post.
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She later stepped away from the sport again, during which time she revealed that her doctor told her to stay away from the sport “indefinitely.” However, she returned to training in early 2016. After that, Glenn was not able to fully demonstrate his 2014 Junior Championship performance in senior level matches.
In December 2019, Glenn announced that he is pansexual. In other words, they are romantically attracted to people regardless of their 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 'indecisive' is common for bisexual/pansexual women. I don't want to impose my sexuality on others, but I don't want to impose my sexuality on others, but I don't want to impose my sexuality on others, but I do believe in who I am. I don’t want to hide it.”
According to the Dallas Voice, Glenn cited North Texas-based Ashley Cain Gribble's ice skating team and his gay partner Timothy LeDuc as “role models” for coming to terms with his sexuality. Ta.
In a 2021 interview with Team USA, Glenn said that his experiences growing up as a figure skater instilled in him stereotypes of homosexuals. She later said that she “admired” female skaters.
“Growing up in figure skating, there was always this stereotype that men were gay,” Glenn says. “At 16, when my friends and training buddies started turning to the opposite sex, I had crushes on both men and women.”
Glenn is only known to be in a romantic relationship with male figure skater Nathan Chen. The two started dating in 2016 and expressed their love through Instagram posts.
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U.S. gold medalist Amber Glenn (Patinoir-Polesud, Grenoble) poses with her medal during the medal ceremony at the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix Final on December 7, 2024 in Grenoble, France. (Daniela Porcelli/International Skating Federation/International Skating Federation)
“My love for you grew gradually. Your personality, your voice, your hair, your eyes, your humor, everything. You're the only person I have to talk to, the only person I can be. Please don't judge me, you're my precious person, my best friend, and the only person I want. The most amazing boyfriend you could have,” she wrote to Chen in an Instagram post.
Their relationship is thought to have ended in 2017, and she came out as pansexual two years later. Glenn said in an interview with NBC Sports in January that she was worried that being openly pansexual would “affect my score.”
It didn't affect her score enough to prevent her from winning a historic medal on Saturday.
Glenn is now in position to be selected to his first Winter Olympic team.
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