U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Champion Amber Glenn
COY COVINGTON | Contributing Writer
Reporting from Bell Centre, Montreal
Making it here to Montreal to compete at the World Figure Skating Championships hasn’t been an easy street for openly queer U.S. National Women’s Champion Amber Glenn. In fact, it’s been a pretty rocky road overall.
Ten years ago, at the tender age of 14, Glenn won the U.S. National Junior title and was considered to be the next big thing. Interestingly, Glenn’s future training mate, Ashley Cain, won silver just behind her in 2014. Cain would go on to win two Senior National titles of her own in the Pairs event along with partner, Timothy LeDuc.
But Glenn’s winning streak came to a shrieking halt.
Being the front runner can take a terrible toll. And at 14, she wasn’t equipped to deal with what was going on in her head.
Mental health wasn’t something so easily talked about in those days. So Glenn suffered in silence as the doubts continued to sneak in, and she even considered leaving the sport. But she’s no quitter.
Glenn has toiled mostly in disappointment these last 10 years in a sport that looks elegant but is often brutal. But she kept putting one skate in front of the other, and success slowly started to shine on her again.
She became a two-time ISU Grand Prix bronze medalist and a three-time ISU Challenger Series medalist, and she has finished within the top 10 at two ISU Championships.
Amber Glenn performs during the women’s short program at the U.S. figure skating championships in 2023. (AP Photo/Josie Lepe)
But that coveted U.S. title remained elusive. Although she won U.S. silver in 2021 and bronze in 2023, that didn’t cut it for Glenn. She wanted the top step on the podium, and, armed with a solid triple axel — she is one of only six American women to land the fiendishly difficult jump in international competition — she finally made that climb and clinched the title on Jan. 26 this year at the U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Championship.
And now it’s “Amber vs. the World” as she steps onto the 2024 World Figure Skating Chamlionship’s competition ice at Montreal’s Bell Centre Wednesday night, March 20, for the Short Program.
Glenn is known as a strong short program skater, so expect her to rock the arena to “Heads Will Roll” by indie rock band Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs with its driving dance beat and seductively catchy lyrics. Although she first thought the music and choreography might be a little “out there” for the often stodgy figure skating crowd, she has come to embrace it.
Embracing herself is something else that Glenn discovered when she came out to this reporter for a 2019 story for Dallas Voice that went national — and even international — in the skating world. She said she has had mostly positive feedback since.
“Luckily I’ve had a ton of support,” she told me last fall. “Everyone has become more and more comfortable and accepting of the fact, and I’ve had great experiences.
“Skaters have told me it has made them more comfortable in their own rink environment, and that’s all I could really ask for,” she added.
Stay tuned to Dallas Voice’s InstanTEA blog in the days ahead for more scoop from the World Championships!
The World Champions can be seen streaming on Peacock.com and on USA and NBC. Check local listings.
