Amber Glenn will make history at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy, when she represents Team USA in figure skating.
At 26 years old, Glenn is set to break a record as the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to compete at the Olympics in 98 years — and will also blaze trails in her sport as the first-ever openly pansexual women’s figure skater to compete for Team USA at the Olympics.
Glenn’s epic journey to Milan and Cortina has seen her triumph over physical and emotional adversity, including taking a high-publicized break from the sport in 2015 to check into a mental health facility. The athlete subsequently made an incredible comeback as she entered the 2026 Winter Olympics with a historic three straight U.S. National Championship wins.
Glenn is one-third of a powerhouse U.S. women’s figure skating team representing the U.S. at Milan and Cortina alongside fellow ‘Blade Angels’ Isabeau Levito and Alysa Liu.
The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially here — and Team USA is arriving in Italy with star power, storylines and sky-high expectations. As the world’s best athletes descend on Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, all eyes are on the Americans: from Ilia Malinin’s can’t-miss moment in men’s figure skating to Mikaela Shiffrin’s long-awaited redemption tour on […]
“If we do our jobs in Milan, then more than likely someone is going to be up there [accepting a medal],” Glenn predicted in a press conference.
Keep scrolling for more on Glenn’s incredible life and career.
Amber Glenn Was Inspired to Skate by Iconic Olympian Sarah Hughes
Ahead of the 2026 Winter Games, Amber Glenn revealed to People that her first “Olympic memory” was watching Sarah Hughes’ gold medal-winning performance at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. (Hughes clinched the gold in a competitive field that also included two Team USA teammates, bronze medal winner Michelle Kwan and fourth-place finisher Sasha Cohen, as well as Russia’s silver medalist Irina Slutskaya.)
“I remember watching Sarah Hughes in the 2002 Olympics quite a few years after it happened on DVD on my little Cinderella TV and just the exhilaration and excitement,” Glenn remembered.
Glenn insisted on emulating Hughes and tried “to skate as fast as I could,” though her mom made her always wear a helmet, elbow and knee pads on the ice as a child.
“I wanted to try all the hard things that I saw the older girls trying. And I did, hence the helmet,” she said. “And I never stopped. I just kept going.”
Glenn ultimately won the U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championship at age 14 in 2014.
Amber Glenn Broke a Record Previously Held by Michelle Kwan
Amber Glenn continued to follow in the footsteps of the 2002 Team USA figure skating squad with her record-breaking run at the U.S. National Championships.
Her three straight U.S. National Championships between 2024 and 2026 made Glenn the first American to win three consecutive national titles since Michelle Kwan. (Prior to Kwan’s eight straight U.S. Figure Skating Championship wins from 1998 to 2005, other legendary skaters such as Dorothy Hamill and Peggy Fleming also achieved three straight Nationals wins in the past.)
Glenn’s 2026 National Championship victory propelled her to a personal best score of 150.50 in the free skate.
“I’m still in disbelief, honestly,” Glenn told U.S. Figure Skating of her latest success in January 2026. “The ladies were on fire this competition, and I couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come as far as Team USA. I had, of course, a performance of my life on Wednesday and was so happy with it and going forward I want to bring the same energy to my free skate.”
She credited her victory at the 2026 National Championships with staying “calm” and“handl[ing] the pressure well.”
“I want to get that same exciting feeling that I did in the short program into the free skate going forward,” she added.
Amber Glenn Took a Break from Competition to Focus on Her Mental Health
While still a teenager, Amber Glenn took an extended break from junior skating to check into a mental health facility in 2015. She told NBC’s Today a decade later that she’d been in “a very dark place” before seeking help.
“I eventually was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, [and an] eating disorder. One of my friends contacted one of my parents and I sought help, and I’m so grateful for that,” she said in June 2015. “Eventually, I got to a place to where I was doing things in a healthy way and I could speak about my struggles.”
Making it to the Olympics is a feat that countless athletes dream of their entire lives. After years of blood, sweat and tears, participating in the most prestigious athletic event in the world is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Some athletes compete one time in the Olympic Games and hang up their hats, stepping gracefully into retirement. […]
Glenn felt it was important to speak out about her experiences in order to assure young athletes facing similar issues that they are not alone.
“I think growing up, I saw the top skaters as untouchable and as these people who didn’t have the same struggles that I was having at that age. Eventually, I got a peek behind the curtain and they were struggling in silence,” she said. “After seeing that, I realized that it was more important for me to be honest about my journey than to try and act like everything was perfect.”
Amber Glenn Suffered Serious Health Problems
Amber Glenn suffered a series of physical setbacks on her road to the Milan and Cortina Olympics in February 2026. She withdrew from Olympic contention in 2022 after testing positive for COVID-19 and has broken her orbital bone twice due to concussions.
Glenn credited her coach, Damon Allen, with getting her through both physical and emotional challenges to achieve a “more passionate, performative” style on the ice.
“[Allen is] really good at bringing me back to earth,” she told People in January 2026.
Amber Glenn Broke New Ground for the LGBTQ Community
OutSports reported in January 2026 that Amber Glenn will be the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to skate for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics.
Glenn came out as part of a 2019 Dallas Voice profile of skater Timothy LeDuc, who had just become the first openly gay athlete to win a U.S. national title in pairs skating. Glenn confirmed her inner circle knew she was pansexual but worried about how her career could be impacted.
“The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me,” she told the publication in 2019. “Being perceived as [going through] ‘just a phase’ or [being] ‘indecisive’ is a common thing for bisexual/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.”
Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn and Isabeau Levito. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Glenn reflected on that statement six years later during an interview with NBC News, where she admitted she would have preferred a more “professional” announcement.
“I thought, ‘OK, this is my little baby step, and … barely anyone’s gonna see it.’ It was a local newspaper,” Glenn said in January 2026. “Yeah, it did not stay local. The next day it was, like, international news.”
The figure skater said in 2026 that she never felt discriminated against since coming out and was proud of the example she set.
“Figure skating is unique,” she told NBC News. “We have more acceptance and more of a community in the queer space, and I feel like I’ve been accepted with open arms, and that’s not the case for all sports.”
Amber Glenn Is the Oldest U.S. Singles Skater to Make Olympics in 98 Years
U.S. Figure Skating confirmed in February 2026 that 26-year-old Amber Glenn was the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to compete in the Olympics in 98 years. (Prior to Glenn, Beatrix Loughran competed at age 27 at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where she won a bronze medal.)
Glenn told ESPN in January 2026 that it would “mean everything” to her to have success at the Milan and Cortina Games given her unlikely journey.
“I had a bit of a shot at it in ’22, but I just was not prepared. I didn’t have the accomplishments under my belt and I didn’t have the confidence,” she said. “And since then, it couldn’t be more different. Now I have accomplished so much in the last four years, both personally and on the ice, and I have a great group of people surrounding me, both back at home and just on Team USA overall.”
