Boston — The Women’s Short Program for the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships concluded Wednesday in Boston and an American woman stood in first place. Two time and reigning U.S. champion Amber Glenn was arguably the favorite going into the competition, but a rare botched triple axel (her signature jump) lands her in a desultory 9th place. Alyssa Liu, Also a two-time Nationals champion (2019 and 2020), awed the crowd and wowed the judges with her hauntingly beautiful skate to “Promise” by Laufey.
Glenn, the out and gay Plano native, duked it out with teammate Isabeau Levito who finished in third, and Liu. Japan’s Mone Chiba finished the Short Program in an impressive second position.
The brawl in Boston continued on Friday in the Women’s Free Skate where Liu won the women’s world title with Japan taking second and third to Kaori Sakamoto and Mone Chiba respectively. Levito took fourth and Glenn was able to crack the top five.
In the Men’s Short Program, American gay fave Jason Brown skated well but ended up in 12th place while the U.S. Quad God Ilia Malinin managed a first place finish. Queer French sensation Kevin Aymoz was still in the hunt, finishing fourth, with an emotional, well-received program.
In the long program on Saturday, Malinin would retain his position and defend his world title. Brown did not finish in the top five but did deliver a crowd pleasing long program and Aymoz would ultimately take fifth place.
USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates took gold in the Ice Dancing category making it the first time the country has taken three championships at the Worlds and ultiamtely setting the stage for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
–Coy Covington (with additional reporting by Rich Lopez)
What does being gay and queer have to do with anything? Why was that specifically mentioned??
Well, since Dallas Voice is the news source for LGBTQ North Texas and beyond, we profile people, places and issues from our community and affecting our community. The skaters’ sexual orientation and/or gender identity is important in this instance simply because that is why we are writing about them. Notice that we do not carry coverage of ice skating in general, just coverage of those members of our community who are competing.
That was my thought, too. The story did not mention the sexual orientation of the other skaters mentioned.