UPDATE: While she did not turn in her best effort today (Sunday, Feb. 8) in the team competition, Glenn finished third among the women to give the U.S. a one-point lead and setting up U.S. men’s champ Ilia Malinen to clinch the team gold for the U.S. figure skaters.
Watch for Glenn to shine when the women’s individual competition starts Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 11:45 central, with the short program. (Check USA Today for the full schedule.)
ORIGINAL POST: U.S. national champion figure skater Amber Glenn said this weekend that she has been receiving violent threats and will be limiting her time on social media after speaking up for LGBTQ rights in a Feb. 4 press interview, according to numerous media outlets.
Glenn came out as queer in an interview with writer Coy Covington for Dallas Voice in December 2019.
In the interview last week for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Glenn was “asked directly about President Trump, his treatment of the LGBTQ community and how it affects her,” according to People Magazine. Glenn replied that even though it has been “a hard time” for the LGBTQ+ community, she intends to use her platform and her voice as a champion skater “to try and encourage people to stay strong.”
“I know that a lot of people will say, ‘You’re just an athlete, stick to your job and shut up about politics,’ but politics affects us all,” she said in the Feb. 4 interview. “It’s something that I will not just be quiet about, because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives. So of course there are things that I disagree with, but as a community, we are strong and we support each other, and brighter days are ahead of us.”
As a result, she wrote on her Instagram Stories on Saturday, Feb. 7, “When I chose to utilize one of the amazing things about the United States of America (Freedom of speech) to convey how I feel as an athlete competing for Team USA in a troubling time for many Americans I am now receiving a scary amount of hate/threats for simply using my voice WHEN ASKED about how I feel.”
But the Plano native said that even though she will be taking a bit of a break on social media as a result, she won’t stop speaking up for her community and for equality.
As People reports, Glenn wrote on Instagram, “I will be limiting my time on social media for my own wellbeing for now but I will never stop using my voice for what I believe in,” then signed the message with a white heart and an “Xoxo.”
Glenn won her third back-to-back U.S. National Championship title in January, cementing her spot on the U.S. Olympic Figure Skating team and her spot as the first openly-queer woman to represent the country in Olympic figure skating.
— Tammye Nash
That is why we must speak out–because of the hate, but you have to expect that in return, and you have to be strong and stand up to it.