Amber Glenn captured Cup of China to become the first U.S. women’s singles figure skater to win two Grand Prix events in one season in 12 years and the fifth American woman to do it in series history dating to 1995.
Glenn, the 25-year-old national champion, landed a triple Axel among eight triple jumps (one negatively graded) in a personal-best free skate on Saturday.
She scored 215.54 points overall between Friday’s short program and Saturday’s free, also a personal best and the world’s second-best score this season among senior women.
Glenn prevailed by 3.63 points over Japan’s Mone Chiba, who led Glenn by two hundredths after the short. Chiba fell on a step sequence late in an otherwise clean free skate.
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Glenn and Chiba both qualified for the Dec. 5-7 Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France, the first event of the season to gather all of the world’s top-ranked skaters.
Glenn qualified as the second-ranked woman in the world over the six-event Grand Prix regular season, just behind three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan.
“I’m just so shocked and excited that I made it,” said Glenn, who had not won an international event at any level before this season.
Glenn said after Friday’s short, “I haven’t felt my best since I’ve been here,” with reports that she injured an ankle in practice.
“I would say (Saturday) I felt at about 75% out there, especially towards the end I was struggling a bit, but I’m really happy with how I was able to keep myself mentally very focused, and I feel like I was rewarded for that, which is very exciting,” she said, according to the International Skating Union.
The triple Axel is the hardest jump being done by senior women internationally so far this season. According to Skatingscores.com, four of the five positively graded triple Axels this season have been done by Glenn, who has landed it at all three of her competitions en route to victory: Lombardia Trophy in September, Grand Prix France three weeks ago and now Cup of China.
The world’s top skaters each compete twice over the six-event Grand Prix regular season. Glenn became the second U.S. woman in the last 20 years to win both of her Grand Prix regular season starts after Ashley Wagner, who did so in 2012.
In all, five U.S. women have won two or more Grand Prix starts in one season (including the Final): Glenn, Wagner, Alissa Czisny (2010), Sasha Cohen (twice) and Michelle Kwan (four times). More U.S. women won multiple Grand Prix-level events in years before the series officially started in 1995.
Glenn, who has 1.5 million TikTok followers, has bounced back from setbacks to become one of the world’s top skaters.
She had severe concussions in summer 2020 — when she passed out in a cryotherapy tank, fell through the door and hit her head on a shoe cubby — and in summer 2023 — when she and another skater collided in a practice accident.
In between, she won silver at the 2021 U.S. Championships to become a bona fide contender for the three-woman 2022 Olympic team. Then she withdrew from the 2022 U.S. Championships that determined the Olympic team due to a COVID-19 bout.
Last January, she won her first senior U.S. title in her ninth try. It marked her first victory of any kind since the 2018 Midwest Sectionals. She also won the U.S. junior title in 2014.
Also at Cup of China, two-time world medalists Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy and Canadians Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha went one-two in ice dance to grab the last two available spots in the Grand Prix Final field of six.
U.S. silver medalists Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third at Cup of China, missing their first Grand Prix Final by one spot.
The U.S. will still have skaters compete in all four disciplines in the Grand Prix Final for the third time since it began in 1996. World champions Ilia Malinin and ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates previously qualified, as did national pairs’ champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea.
2024 Cup of China Figure Skating Results
Women
1. Amber Glenn (USA) -- 215.54
2. Mone Chiba (JPN) — 211.91
3. Kim Chae-Yeon (KOR) -- 208.47
4. Rion Sumiyoshi (JPN) -- 202.45
5. Rinka Watanabe (JPN) -- 196.95
6. Kimmy Repond (SUI) -- 195.91
7. Madeline Schizas (CAN) -- 180.77
8. Anastasiia Gubanova (GEO) -- 177.34
9. Zhu Yi (CHN) -- 166.04
10. An Xiangyi (CHN) -- 163.74
11. Kim Min-Chae (KOR) -- 154.39
12. Chen Hongyi (CHN) -- 139.57
Men
1. Shun Sato (JPN) -- 278.48
2. Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) -- 276.17
3. Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) -- 252.53
4. Nika Egadze (GEO) -- 247.54
5. Matteo Rizzo (ITA) -- 243.82
6. Dai Daiwei (CHN) -- 237.35
7. Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) -- 234.67
8. Jin Boyang (CHN) -- 231.89
9. Kim Hyun-Gyeom (KOR) -- 216.64
10. Nikolaj Memola (ITA) -- 214.77
11. Chen Yudong (CHN) -- 182.60
WD. Wesley Chiu (CAN)
Pairs
1. Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii (ITA) -- 211.05
2. Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin (GER) -- 209.36
3. Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud (CAN) -- 188.74
4. Ioulia Chtchetinina/Michal Wozniak (POL) -- 177.04
5. Katie McBeath/Daniil Parkman (USA) -- 159.92
6. Camille Kovalev/Pavel Kovalev (FRA) -- 157.11
7. Isabella Gomez/Aleksandr Korovin (PHI) -- 151.26
8. Wang Yuchen/Zhu Lei (CHN) -- 136.90
Ice Dance
1. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) — 209.13
2. Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) -- 205.16
3. Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko (USA) -- 198.18
4. Olivia Smart/Tim Dieck (ESP) -- 196.52
5. Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis (FIN) -- 192.57
6. Caroline Green/Michael Parsons (USA) -- 189.86
7. Loicia Demougeot/Theo le Mercier (FRA) -- 185.23
8. Diana Davis/Gleb Smolkin (GEO) -- 182.32
9. Ren Junfei/Xing Jianing (CHN) -- 156.51
10. Xiao Zixi/He Linghao (CHN) -- 146.16
2024 ISU Grand Prix Final Figure Skating Qualifiers
Women
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 30 points
2. Amber Glenn (USA) — 30
3. Wakaba Higuchi (JPN) — 28
4. Hana Yoshida (JPN) — 26
5. Mone Chiba (JPN) — 26
6. Rino Matsuike (JPN) — 26
Men
1. Ilia Malinin (USA) — 30
2. Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) — 30
3. Shun Sato (JPN) — 28
4. Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) — 26
5. Kevin Aymoz (FRA) — 26
6. Daniel Grassl (ITA) — 24
Pairs
1. Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (CAN) — 30
2. Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) — 28
3. Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin (GER) -- 28
4. Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii (ITA) -- 28
5. Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) — 24
6. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) — 24
Ice Dance
1. Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) — 30
2. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) — 28
3. Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) — 28
4. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) — 26
5. Evgenia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) — 26
6. Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) -- 26
