In a breakthrough 2024, Amber Glenn added to a figure skating journey with her first senior national title in January, her first international titles in September and November and the capper at the Grand Prix Final two weeks ago — the biggest title for a U.S. women’s singles skater in 14 years.
Before that, Glenn spent much of the previous 10 years facing adversities within the sport she loved.
It began with a victory, actually. She won the 2014 U.S. Junior Championships at Boston’s TD Garden. They were held concurrently with that year’s senior nationals that determined the Sochi Olympic team.
“I remember being absolutely thrilled, but as soon as that happened, the expectations were just astounding,” Glenn reflected Monday while doing interviews after her first Today Show appearance.
Ten years later, she remembers the instant comparisons to Gracie Gold and Polina Edmunds, two women who made that 2014 Olympic team. Glenn correctly noted off the top of her head that Gold and Edmunds won the U.S. junior title the two years before she did. And that each placed second at senior nationals the following season.
“People didn’t directly say, but it was kind of expected, ‘Oh, she’s going to be the next one,’” Glenn said. “So it was just kind of thrown on me overnight.”
The next season, Glenn was 13th in her senior nationals debut in January 2015. By fall 2015, she said her mental health had been deteriorating for months.
She spent time in a mental health facility shortly before her first senior international competition in Canada in October 2015. She placed sixth, then stepped away from skating at the recommendation of multiple mental health professionals.
“Not knowing if I would ever be able to (skate) again, especially in a competitive capacity,” she said. “But I love figure skating so much.”
Glenn celebrated her 16th birthday later in October 2015.
“Seeing my friends from skating and talking to them and being just so devastated that I wasn’t doing what I love,” she said.
Glenn reflected for another two months, then got back on the ice. In March 2016, she attended the World Championships women’s free skate at TD Garden.
She cheered — screamed — for American Ashley Wagner, who moved up from fourth place to seize the silver medal. The arena was so loud that she couldn’t hear herself.
“Seeing that lights-out performance, it blew my mind, but I also thought that’ll never be me, that’s not the level I’m at,” Glenn said. “So it was inspiring and discouraging at the same time because I didn’t believe in myself at that point.”
Glenn returned to competition the following season. She steadily climbed -- from eighth place at nationals in 2017 and 2018 to seventh in 2019, fifth in 2020 and second in 2021.
She also sustained 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 went into the 2022 U.S. Championships as a contender to make the Olympic team. But she felt slow, weak and sluggish.
Glenn placed 14th in the short program, tested positive for COVID-19 the next morning, withdrew and watched the free skate in isolation inside her Nashville hotel room.
Determined, she continued skating, moving from her native Texas to Colorado Springs to train under Damon Allen and Tammy Gambill.
Which brings her story to 2024.
In January, Glenn won her first senior national title in her ninth appearance at the event. It came nearly 10 years after she shared a Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd insert with future snowboarding gold medalist Chloe Kim and future NHL player Colin White.
Also early this year, Sandy Straub, one of the coaches at Glenn’s rink, started using a motivational phrase: “calm beast.”
“They were trying to come up with something to help me lock in mentally in the right amount,” Glenn said. “She had mentioned one of the days that I was trying some new focusing techniques that I looked like a calm beast, and I had been skating well. It’s a reminder of getting into this zone.”
Glenn also had multiple neurotherapy sessions per week over the offseason, tracking her brain waves to help her better focus through her skates.
Glenn, who had zero previous international titles on any level (and none domestically in six years), won all four of her international competitions this fall.
The last was the Grand Prix Final, the most exclusive event in the sport. It features the world’s top six women from the fall Grand Prix Series.
The competition was in Grenoble, France, but Glenn had a special audience back home in Colorado Springs: Ms. McFann’s seventh-grade math class at Chinook Trail Middle School.
“I have talked (to my class) about Amber a few times, as she is one of my neighbors, and also a friend,” McFann wrote in an email. “My students, particularly in my Core 3, have been very invested in her performances and were so excited when I told them that she would be performing during the time that our class meets.”
They watched from their desks as Glenn had the highest score in the short program.
“Our dogs are best friends,” Glenn said of McFann. “They have play dates just about every day. So she had mentioned to her class that her neighbor was going to be skating on TV, and if they’re good, they can watch. So while they’re cleaning up the classroom and stuff, they got to watch. I actually plan on visiting them soon.”
Two days later, Glenn prepared to take the ice for her free skate. Coach Allen offered his last words of encouragement.
“It’s nothing you don’t do every single day,” she remembered Allen saying. “You’ve been training so hard for this. You’ve earned it. Remember, calm beast.”
Glenn had two minor jumping errors and still posted the highest score. She became the first U.S. woman to win the Grand Prix Final since Alissa Czisny in 2010.
Glenn has shared her journey with 1.5 million TikTok followers. In 2026, she can become the oldest U.S. women’s singles skater to compete in an Olympics in 98 years.
First, there is the rest of this season: nationals in Wichita, Kansas, in late January. Then, if she makes the three-woman team, the World Championships in March. Again at TD Garden.
One of Glenn’s favorite figure skating memories came at the Garden after she won the 2014 U.S. Championships junior title.
The breakout star of those senior nationals was Jason Brown, who took second at age 19 with a rousing “Riverdance” free skate.
“I remember distinctly being backstage at the (post-competition) gala performance and seeing Jason and congratulating him, thinking he didn’t know who I was,” Glenn said. “He ran up to me and gave me a big hug and congratulated me. Oh my God, I was just blown away by his kindness and supportiveness when I was just some random kid, and he had just made the Olympic team. He had that lights-out performance that everyone was on their feet a minute before he was even done. That stuck with me a lot.”
